THE SMYRNA FIG IN AMERICA 



By Mark Bennitt. 



' I 'HE largest fig garden in the world is situated in the north- 



A ern suburbs of Fresno, California and is owned by 

 Henry Markarian. It consists of 100 acres of trees planted 

 sixteen years ago and now yields about 400 tons of dried figs 

 annually. More than 3,000 of the trees are of the Smyrna 

 type, the others being principally the white Adriatic and the 

 Mission black fig, which were introduced into California by the 

 Spanish missionaries from Mexico about 1769. 



It was the writer's good fortune to visit Mr. Markarian's 

 wonderful orchard in mid-June when the pollination of the first 

 crop was taking place. Men were carrying bags, boxes and 

 baskets of green figs into the orchard, stopping at each tree to 

 leave a handful or two in small wire baskets holding about a 

 quart, or hanging wreaths of eight or ten figs each on small 

 limbs well within the trees Without some previous knowledge 

 of fig culture, or an explanation from Mr. Markarian, a casual 

 visitor would not have suspected the nature of this work. It 

 was the practical working out of a riddle that perplexed one of 

 California's foremost men for a quarter of a century. 



The figs which the workmen were placing in the Smyrna 

 trees were the wild or caprifigs containing the fig wasp (Blasto- 

 phaga grossontui). This wasp develops only in the caprifig 

 and by placing these figs in the Smyrna trees at the proper time, 

 the wasps leave them and, carrying a load of pollen grains on 

 their bodies, enter the young Smyrna figs and pollinate the hid- 

 den flowers. Lnless so pollinated the figs shrivel and drop off. 



