78 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
If the wasps could breed and live in the edible figs no caprification 
would be required. When through unfavorable climatie conditions 
the Blastophaga crop fails, when the early spring frosts kill the young 
wasps and their eggs and larvee, or in the case of some varieties of 
cultivated caprifig trees, man’s aid. is required. The grower must 
then supply caprifigs with live wasps from some distant part and trans- 
fer them both to the caprifig trees in order to start new broods and to 
the edible figs in order to caprificate them. This is done at times in 
Asia Minor, when often after heavy frosts whole shiploads of caprifigs 
are imported from Greece to supply the necessary wasps. Caprifigs 
suitable for caprification are regularly sold in all market places in the 
fig-growing countries around the Mediterranean. 
After this short summary of the process, caprification will be con- 
sidered more in detail. A horticultural and botanical study of the 
fig, its flowers and crops, is required in order to fully comprehend the 
necessity, importance, and nature of this interesting and complicated 
process. 
CROPS OF THE FIGS. 
General remarks.—The ecaprifig, as well as the edible fig, bears 
several distinct crops every year. So distinct are these crops and so 
important does the distinction between them appear to those nations 
which depend upon fig culture as an article of food and commerce 
that the various crops have been given separate and characteristic 
names. 
In order to understand these names a detailed description of the 
various fig crops is necessary. We must bear in mind that while the 
fig and the caprifig crops in a general way resemble each other, they 
still disagree in some important points. This may also be said to be 
the case with the principal types of the edible fig. In a general way 
it may be stated that we have three distinct crops, each one appearing 
at a separate time—spring, summer, and fall—according to the season 
in the respective countries. But each one of these crops is character- 
ized in a peculiar way, and without a full knowledge of them a perfect 
understanding of caprification is impossible. (Pl. VIII.) 
The various crops of the fig.—While the edible-fig tree may pos- 
sess three distinct crops, we do not always find all these crops fol- 
lowing one another on the same tree. This may be and often is the 
case, but fig trees and fig varieties exist in which one or more crops 
are wanting. The first, second, or third crops may be respectively 
suppressed, or one of these crops may be present while the other two 
are suppressed. 
Shortly before the fig tree begins to leaf out in the spring, small but- 
ton figs are seen pushing out from the wood of last year below the 
young lexves of the present season. The place where these figs 
develop is the place where during last season existed a leaf, which 
