FIG ‘CULTURE IN VARIOUS FOREIGN COUNTRIES. 39 
strings being, perhaps, 20 to 30 ona tree. After afew weeks, when the ‘ douk- 
kar” begin to dry up, the process of caprification is renewed. This is repeated as 
many as four to six times during the summer. The expense of caprifying the 
trees is considerable. Eachstring of caprifigs costs about 5 centimes, which brings 
the highest cost of caprification for a single tree up to 5 francs a year. Some 
tribes forbid the exportation of caprifigs outside of their boundary, but as a rule 
the markets are full of caprifigs, offered for sale during the period when caprifi- 
cation is considered necessary. 
Figs requiring caprification.—N ot all fig varieties require capritication. Those 
varieties which do not require caprificat:on are Abakour, Ar’anim, Abouh‘archaou, 
Abouremman, Azagour guilef, Azaich, Aboulil, Abel’endjour. Thazerat, and Thad- 
hefouith. The varieties which it is necessary to caprificate are Thar’animt. El-hadj, 
Abouzouggar’, Mezzith, and Thazaicht. 
The brebas are known as *‘ Ourgalen,” except those of the variety ‘‘Abakour,” the 
brebas of which are called ‘‘ bakour” (early). 
Curing and drying.—The figs are dried on trays made of reeds. The latter are 
exposed to the full glare of the sun, but are stacked at night. 15 or more trays 
being superposed one on the other. When dried, the figs are stored in earthen jars 
or in large baskets. In order to keep away vermin, leaves of the sweet bay and of 
the ‘‘zater” (Culaminta nepeta) are interposed among the figs. The mode of pack- 
ing used in Greece is also in vogue in the districts nearest the Mediterranean, 
but this more elaborate way of packing is used only for the figs destined for expor- 
tation. The quality is generally good, but the packing is always poor and pre- 
vents extensive sales and high prices. 
From 18 to 25 francs are realized for a kilo of the best dried figs. 
FIGS IN ITALY. 
Cato, who.lived two centuries before Pliny, knew 6 varieties of figs. 
In the beginning of the Christian era Pliny, the well-known naturalist, 
enumerated some 27 different varieties. The names given them are 
either from the places where they were growing or they were named 
after persons who had introduced them or who cultivated them. Thus 
we read of Rhodian figs, of others as African, Hyrcanian, Lydian, 
Tivolian, Herculean, Pompeian, Livian, the latter introduced by Livia. 
As might be expected, these figs are not so minutely described as to 
enable us to identify them with kinds now existing in Italy or else- 
where. From the time of Pliny to modern times we find no pub- 
lished accounts of Italian figs. Still, during the long interval new 
varieties must have been introduced and originated by chance or 
otherwise, as the first of the earliest of the modern writers, Porta and 
Pontedera—the former in the first years of the seventeenth century, 
the latter a hundred years later—mention a great number of distinct 
and valuable kinds. 
EXTENT AND CHARACTER OF THE ITALIAN FIG DISTRICTS. 
While fig trees are grown all through the Italian peninsula and its 
adjoining islands, the true and principal fig region must be consid- 
ered as that situated south of Rome, and extending from there to Sicily 
and the Liparian Islands. In northern Italy figs are grown princi- 
pally for eating fresh, and as such can not be said to constitute an 
