THE NEW EARTH 



proportion, Blastophaga grossarum, but it goes 

 on about its appointed mission just as nimbly 

 as though it had no such burden to bear. 



Under the stimulus of all the activity of the 

 New Earth, which apparently pervades all mod- 

 ern effort, the fig was not left to its miserable 

 estate in the country of its adoption. Every- 

 thing in the New World was in its favor, cli- 

 mate, soil, demand. So the fig- wasp was induced 

 to come to this country, the edible figs were 

 pollinated, and the same transformation that 

 has all the centuries annually taken place in the 

 home of the fig, in distant Asia Minor, now is 

 wrought in America. While in 1891 the cured 

 fig output of California, where very largely the 

 fig is grown, was only three hundred and sixty 

 thousand pounds, it has now increased to from 

 five to seven millions of pounds per year, and 

 the character of the product is pronounced 

 superior to the Oriental fig both by analysis 

 and by the test of expert opinion, while the 

 domestic fig is far more desirable from the 

 important standpoint of cleanliness. 



Before considering the question of horticul- 

 ture in smaller lines, it may be of interest to 

 note as a suggestion of the really wonderful 



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