28 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
wards no irrigation is used or required. This peculiar way of plant- 
ing, which has been considered an heirloom of ancient superstition, 
has been much condemned; but the custom is nevertheless a most 
excellent one, as it causes the fig tree to branch and spread in a 
number of fan-shaped branches, which prevents the very-dangerous 
breaking of the limbs and branches of the trees. If we wish to pre- 
vent the breaking down of our own fig trees we must adopt this very 
method. Trees grown in this manner branch close to the soil and 
spread out in all directions, forming a number of trunks or stems. 
Only enough of the lower branches are cut away to allow passage for 
the pickers, and so low are the branches allowed to remain that the 
pickers must bend in order not to strike them, the lowest branches 
being 3 to 4 feet from the ground. 
This planting also causes the trees to be more open to air and allows 
more sunshine in the interior of the crown. The advantage of this is 
evident when it is remembered that the best lobfigs are always found 
on the outside of the tree and never among the interior branches, 
where they are shaded and never come to proper maturity. The con- 
trary is the case with the caprifigs, the best for caprification being 
found in the interior, among the denser foliage. The pruning of the 
fig is not extensively practiced in Smyrna. Trees planted as just 
described produce no main standard or central trunk which later 
needs to be cut out, but only several branches, which bend away from 
one another in a goblet-shaped manner. The necessary pruning is 
therefore confined to the cutting away of limbs that cross one another, 
and also to the cutting away of some of the year’s growth from where 
it starts out from 3 or 4 year old wood. Limbs are never cut square off. 
An important part of fig cultivation in Smyrna is the watching of 
the orchards. This is done by special guardians or watchers, known 
as ‘‘beckji.” They stay in the orchards day and night, in specially 
prepared arbors or camps under some large tree near the drying 
ground, and their business is to keep away all intruders—thieves of 
humankind as well as beasts and birds. 
The bearing quality of the fig depends greatly on the age of the fig 
trees. Younger trees will produce 50 pounds of dried fruit, trees in 
good condition bearing 150 pounds, while old trees will yield 300 or 
more pounds of dried fruit. No fig tree of the drying kinds is sup- 
posed to produce figs suitable for drying until it is four or more 
years old. é 
CAPRIFICATION,. 
Caprification, or ‘“‘ilek atmak,” is practiced yearly, as without it 
the crop will fail to set and mature. The time for this operation is 
in the last week of June. The figs have then reached the size of a 
hazelnut or larger. Four or six caprifigs are strung on a reed, and 
this is thrown over the’ branches of the edible fig trees. Later, as 
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