26 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
vicinity are admirably suited for the growing and curing of raisin 
grapes, especially the Sultanas, Rosaki, and Black, the interior is 
less suited to them, but more to figs and oranges. The maximum 
heat in the summer seldom rises above 90° F. in the shade or 130° F. 
in the sun, and in the winter rarely falls below 30° F. There is con- 
siderable dew throughout the season, even in the summer, and the 
air is much more moist than in California and Arizona. 
The winter is the rainy season, the summer the dry one, as on the 
Pacifie coast. The rain falls from November to April, beginning and 
‘ending with seattering showers. The average rainfall is about 25 
inches. From April to November practically no rain falls. While 
there is but little frost in the winter, there are sometimes frosts in 
March heavy enough to cause much injury to the young caprifig, 
the lobfigs not having set. 
VARIETIES OF FIGS. 
Regarding the names of the figs grown in the fig districts mueh 
confusion prevails, as the figs are known by the places where grown, 
or designated by color, shape, ete., or by quality, or style of packing. 
Thus ‘‘ Leker ingir” means simply layer figs. The Turks, unable to 
pronounce ‘‘layer” properly, the name given by the English merchants, 
have corrupted it to ‘‘leker.” Leker ingir is, therefore, not a variety, 
but a style of fig packing. ‘‘Hordas” are white figs of inferior 
quality which require no caprification. They are dried and shipped 
to Austria and Germany for adulterating coffee and for distilling. 
The white Hordas are used for the coffee, while the brown Hordas go 
to the distillery. ‘‘ Budrun Hordas” is a variety which when dried is 
preferred by makers of adulterated coffee. 
The following are some of the most generally cultivated figs in the 
Smyrna districts: 
Lob Ingir (lob meaning juicy, and ingir fig).—This is the best fig 
for drying. The pulp is white; the form flat; the stalk short; the 
ribs prominent before maturity; the eye rather large, not open; skin 
whitish yellow; leaves deeply lobed, with the lobes long and narrow 
pointed. Of the five to seven lobes some are larger than others, 
making the leaf rather lopsided. Lob Ingir is undoubtedly identieal 
with the variety known as ‘‘ Bulletin No. 1,”' now grown in many 
places in California, where, however, it does not produce any erop 
without caprification or pollination, though now and then a fig of the 
first crop comes to partial maturity. 
Ak Ingir (ak, white; ingir, fig).—Another fig for drying, possibly 
identical with ‘‘ Bulletin No. 3.” Fruit has not yet matured in Cali- 
fornia. Judging from unripe specimens, the fig is very round; the 
' Varieties of figs introduced by the San Francisco Bulletin several years ago; 
hence the naine. 
ee 
