194 THE FIG: ITS HISTORY, CULTURE, AND CURING. 
cular. When finished, the fig forms a flat disk, the eye being exactly 
in the center on the under side and the stalk in the center on the 
upper or opposite side. In order to make the fig larger yet, the part 
just between the stalk and the periphery of the fig is split by the 
thumb nail, which of course causes the fig to spread out in front. 
This, however, should be done only in extra fancy packing, and really 
does not improve the fig, though such split figs pack more easily and 
appear larger. Figs pulled in this way present their finest surface on 
one side, thé coarse and hard part around the eye being hidden. The 
skin around the stalk end is always the finest and handsomest part of 
the fig, presenting a semitransparent and beautifully streaked skin, 
contrasting greatly with the opaque zone around the eye. The only 
method by which this fine part may be properly presented to view is 
by the above-described ‘*‘ flat” pulling. 
The ‘‘square” pulling may be either very simple or may require 
considerable experience and skill. The finest figs in Smyrna are the 
‘‘locoum” figs, which are not flattened out, but which are worked 
into little cubes or bags, each fig being first squeezed in the hand. 
Then the sides are pushed slightly inward, the front being left blunt, 
the upper and under surface flat, but the stalk end is slightly pressed 
in and the stalk bent down. All this manipulation simply tends to 
give to the fig the form of acube. A less expensive pulling is used for 
common grades. It simply consists of squeezing the figs repeatedly, 
both hands being separately occupied. The figs are not shaped, but 
only made soft. 
PACKING. 
The packing should be regulated according to the quality of the 
figs. The Smyrna way of packing the best figs in ‘‘ bars” can hardly be 
improved. Each box contains three or more such bars, parallel to one 
another, and so well packed that each bar may be lifted out separately 
without disturbing the other two in the same box. What is accom- 
plished with great skill and practice in Smyrna may be performed 
here by the aid of asmall mechanical contrivance called the ‘‘ guide.” 
This guide consists of several parallel strips of tin of the exact length 
of the interior of the box and fastened to two other pieces of tin also 
parallel, but at right angles to the first one, and one at each end. 
These cross pieces are to be of the exact inside width of the fig box. 
The height of these four pieces constituting the guide is to be about 
one-half inch greater than the box. The use of this guide is easily 
understood. When placed in the empty fig box before packing it 
divides the box into three (or more if wanted) equal longitudinal com- 
partments, each made to hold one bar, consisting of several or many 
layers of figs. The width of each compartment must be made to cor- 
respond to the width of each fig when prepared, ready to be packed. 
For different sizes of figs different guides are required, and of course 
