260 FLORIDA FRUITS FIGS. 



orchard or vineyard once is planted, the owner may lay in 

 his easy chair and wait for the fruit to ripen without any 

 further trouble or labor, can alone be referred to the fig. 

 We know of no other fruit tree that needs so little care, 

 or, in fact, demands to be left alone as does the fig ; even 

 the constant plowing of the soil, so much needed in other 

 fruit plantations, is here even a disadvantage. Figs should 

 be left alone; keep the weeds away and nothing more. 

 One plowing is enough, provided the trees are in the proper 

 soil; two would injure the trees. The fig has any quantity 

 of surface roots, and if these are disturbed the trees will 

 suffer. Figs which are never plowed produce as fine fruit 

 as those cultivated with care. While other trees cry for 

 constant care, the fig trees beg to be left alone ; they are 

 fully able to care for themselves." 



It is with the fig in its natural state much as it is with 

 guavas, the taste for each must be acquired, but when once 

 attained is very strong. In Europe the people are trained 

 from childhood to like the fresh fig ; it is seen on the hotel 

 tables as a dessert fruit whenever it is in season, and fresh 

 or stewed, even more than dried, it forms an important 

 part of the food of the masses. 



It is a mild laxative, and hence particularly wholesome 

 for a warm climate, and to this fact the inhabitants of 

 Southern Europe are fully alive. It should be the same 

 in America, and would be if more care were taken to place 

 the best sorts on the markets. 



Wherever fresh figs are offered for sale in the United 

 States, the largest and coarsest kinds only are sought for, 

 and it is very amusing to those who know better, to see a 

 customer pass scornfully by a lot of fine, delicate-flavored, 

 but small fruit, and purchase a larger, more showy kind, 

 not one half so palatable or rich. 



The people are not yet educated to a proper appreciation 



