10 



THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



find such a place, the insects come into constant contact and friction 

 with the female flower in the Smyrna fig, and in so doing dispose of the 

 pollen which they collected; disappointed, they emerge from the fig, 

 often wingless, and perish. 



"While there is an abundance of Profichi for the purpose of pollinating 

 the Smyrna fig, nature has only provided a few IMammone capris to 

 connect the generations; but, needless to say, the few insects multiply 

 into myriads in the following generations. 



The female insect is black and has four wings; the male is red and 

 Avingless. The caprifigs contain from 500 to 3,000 male and female 



Fig. 11. — Caprifigs are distributed in the early morning, placing the proper 

 number in a wire basket suspended from a limb. (Original.) 



wasps, one-fourth of which are male and three-fourths female. Of 

 course, these figures vary in the different species of capri. The Mar- 

 karian No. 1 contains more insects and pollen than any other capri I 

 have known. In many of my capris I have counted as many as 3,000 

 wasps in one fig. 



Caprification is very simple and intensely interesting. One need not 

 be a botanist to do the work. Any ordinary ranch hand in a few days 

 can acquire sufficient knowledge to perform the operation. After the 

 Smyrna fig trees reach their maturity, which is the fifth or sixth year, 

 of course depending largely on the attention and consequent result, the 

 trees must be caprified to reap the benefits from the orchard, after years 

 of waiting. The caprification season commences about the tenth of June 

 and ends about the fifth of July. 



To decide whether a caprifig is ripe, cut one open and observe whether 

 any male insects have emerged. As already .stated, the male comes out 

 of the galls first. Their presence indicates whether part of the female 

 insects have migrated or are about to migrate. The practical way of 



