Relation of Weather to crops 75 



2000 feet elevation it is desirable to protect the young trees by- 

 banking them with soil until they become established. It is doubt- 

 ful if the fig will ever become a commercial crop in Arizona, unless, 

 perhaps, in the Yuma Valley, where the first crop of a variety of 

 black fig, probably the Mission, makes a semi-candied fig on the 

 tree. This fig commands a high price on the market. 



The Mission is the most valuable variety here because of its 

 hardiness; because it does not need to be fertilized by the Blasto- 

 phaga wasp, and because the first crop is important as well as 

 the second. 



The Brown Turke}^ and White Adriatic are good varieties which 

 do not require the Blastophaga wasp to fertilize them. Bulletin 

 Smyrna and Lob Injir are Smyrna varieties which, with the Blasto- 

 phaga wasp to pollinate them, have produced abundant crops 

 at Phoenix. With this class of figs it is necessary to raise the Capri 

 fig trees, in the fruit of which the Blastophaga wasp develops. This 

 is the only insect that can pollinate figs and the Capri is the only 

 plant upon which the insect can develop. 



Figs require a liberal supply of water and great care in trans- 

 planting. Methods used to transplant most trees will kill fig trees. 

 The slightest drying of the roots kills the tree. 



Figs grow readily from cuttings made from one-year-old wood. 

 9 to 12 inches long, planted to within one bud from the top. Cut- 

 tings need frequent irrigation. 



gooseberries 



These humid climate loving plants succeed well in the moun- 

 tains at high elevations. In the hot and dry southern valleys, 

 however, their growth is attended with considerable difficulty 

 and they have never been cultivated extensively with profit. 

 The Houghton has been grown in an experimental way near 

 Phoenix, but the prospects for a money profit in gooseberries are 

 not encouraging. 



GRAINS 



Barley, wheat, and oats are not killed or seriously injured by 

 the lowest temperatures that occur in southern Arizona. On the 

 contrary, they continue to grow during most of the coolest weather 

 of the year. Occasionally some injury is done to the bloom of 

 grains during spring, but the loss from this cause is not great. It 

 is the hot dry weather of summer that the small grains and most 



