10 



the caprification of Smyrna figs. He took a special trip, some years ago, to 

 Smyrna and the Levant, to see the methods employed in the East ; but it 

 was under the supervision of Mr. Swingle, of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, that the successful introduction of Blastophaga grossorum 

 (the tiny fig insect) was accomplished. Mr. Roeding, who has a large nursery 

 and fruit-drying outfit, has all the different Capri figs growing in the orchard 

 with the Smyrna figs, and has demonstrated that Smyrna figs can be produced 

 in this part of California as perfect as those in the Levant. 



The Capri figs are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, of which No. 1 is the best, as it 

 bears figs nearly all the year round. The fruit of the Capri figs, containing the 

 tiny wasps, are plucked off the trees and tied in strings or hung up in little 

 wire baskets on the branches of the Smyrna fig-trees. It is said that one 

 insect will fertilise a fig. The crop of Capri figs must be continuous, so that 

 the varieties growing the most irregular crops, like No. 1, are the most 

 useful. The fig industry, however, is not a very important one in California ; 

 with all the influence Mr. Roeding has had, only a few people have embarked 

 in the industry. This gentleman also grows large quantities of muscatels 

 and Thompson's seedless grapes, which are turned into raisins. Before the 

 Pure Food Act came into force in the United States last year, sulphur was 

 used in the treatment of the grapes and prunes ; now most of them are 

 sun-dried. Several of the growers wanted to know if our raisin-growers were 

 allowed to use sulphur for drying, and claimed that it was a great hardship, 

 for the raisins never had the same colour when simply sun-dried. Dr. Wiley, 

 of Washington, who was responsible for getting this gn at Act against adul- 

 teration passed, told me "that if a man wants to take sulphur into his 

 system, he should know when and how he is taking it." Since then, the 

 authorities at Washington have agreed to let the growers use sulphur for 

 two years longer, until the matter is further investigated. Sunnyside, an 

 adjoining estate, contains 640 acres of grape vines, and there are several 

 large wineries in the vicinity of Fresno. 



From Fresno I went on to Los Angeles, where I, placed myself in the 

 hands of Mr. Jeffery, Horticultural Commissioner of the district, who has 

 since been elected Chief Horticultural Commissioner for California. He has; 

 a large staff of inspectors, as this is an important centre of the orange 

 industry. In the San Gabriel Valley there are 8,000 acres of citrus orchard, 

 all under irrigation, and, in the older orchards, the trees were covered with 

 fruit in fine condition ; but there was plenty of red, yellow, purple, and 

 blai k scale on some of them, and they were going to start fumigation in about 

 two weeks' time (23rd September). I spent one day motoring through this 

 valley with Messrs. Jeffery and Bemisb, and visited the Govina Low Lands 

 Packing Company's establishment, a co-operative society comprising some 

 forty menders. Here all the boxes are made by machinery, the fruit washed, 

 graded, and packed, and they can turn out 500 car loads a day. 



Here I was told that if permanganate of potash is mixed with the water 

 through which the oranges are passed, to be washed and rubbed before 

 grading, there is no danger of black spot appearing upon the skin. It may 

 be quite correct that in an incipient state this disease is thus checked, and 

 is, therefore, worth noting. 



At Los Angeles I met the manager of the California Fruit Exchange. 

 This is organised in the following manner : Each district of from 20 ta 

 150 growers combine, and make an assessment on their orchards, the 

 funds of which are used to build a co-operative packing-house. They then 

 e'eor one of their members to a County Board, which consists of nine mem- 



