100 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
State. Still not one tree properly matured a single fruit. A few of 
the first crop became half ripened—that is, became yellow and soft, 
but insipid, not sweet, and never attained a proper size or a size at 
all approaching that of the imported dried figs. 
Acting on the principle that the want of success in producing 
Smyrna figs here was due entirely to the absence of Blastophaga 
wasps and to want of pollination, the writer began experiments in this 
direction in 1282 and was later joined in them by E. W. Maslin, of 
San Francisco. Some of these experiments are recorded inthe author’s 
Biological Studies on Figs, Caprifigs, and Caprification, published in 
the Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 1895, and for 
particulars reference may be made to that work. It is enough to state 
here that there were produced numerous fully mature and _ perfeet 
Smyrna figs on the imported Smyrna trees by simply introducing the 
pollen into the figs at a time when the pistillate flowers were fully 
receptive. Thus, once for all, was settled the question of the neees- 
sity and nature of caprification, and it was demonstrated that the 
want of success in producing Smyrna figs in California was alone due 
to the want of pollination by Blastophaga wasps. The author’s 
experiments also demonstrated that the varieties of the first importa- 
tion of Smyrna figs into California, the genuineness of which had been 
doubted by nearly everyone, were genuine. This collection, consist- 
ing of several hundred trees, was brought here by G. P. Rixford in 
1880 and 1882, through the aid of Consul E. J. Smithers in Smyrna. 
On account of the persistent dropping of the figs the idea originated 
by the late Dr. Stillman became prevalent that these figs were not 
what they pretended to be, but simply wild figs sent us by the jealous 
Smyrna growers, who were afraid that our fig production would come 
into competition with their own products. On that account most of 
the ‘‘ Bulletin”! figs were rooted out. 
During the year 1900 the chief of the Entomological Division of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, Dr. L. O. Howard, sent one 
of his assistants, Mr. E. A. Schwarz, to Fresno and Niles, Cal., to pur- 
sue studies in connection with caprification. During his investiga- 
tions Mr. Schwarz caprificated several thousand Smyrna fig trees in 
the Roeding orchard near Fresno. The result was that some 6 tons 
of dried figs of the true Smyrna varieties were produced. These figs 
were all of very good quality and possessed the characteristics of the 
Smyrna figs. This year I am informed that some 30,000 eaprifigs have 
been used for caprification on the same place, anda much larger crop 
may be expected. The time for caprification in the central part of 
the San Joaquin Valley is in the middle of June, while at Niles, near 
San Francisco Bay, the time for caprification is in July. There exist 
'So called because they were distributed to the subscribers of the San Francisco 
Bulletin, an evening daily paper, which, during Mr. G. P. Rixford’s management, 
did much for horticulture in California. ; 
