CHAPTER XXX 

 THE FIG 



The fig is, perhaps, the grandest fruit tree of California. Its majes- 

 tic size and its symmetry make it a crowning feature of the landscape, 

 and its dense foliage renders the wide space embowered by it a harbor 

 of refuge from mid-summer heat, both for idlers and for the indus- 

 trious. On adjacent farms in Pleasant's Valley, Solano County, there 

 are large fig groves ; one serves as a shelter for the packers of fruit 

 from the contiguous orchard, and the other incloses and shades a cro- 

 quet ground. Measurements of large trees are abundant, for old trees 

 are numerous in the interior of the State, both in the valley and on the 

 slopes of the Sierra foothills. At Knight's Ferry, in Stanislaus County, 

 there is a fig tree sixty feet in height, with branches of such length as 

 to shade a circle seventy feet in diameter. The trunk at the base is 

 eleven feet around, and nine feet at a distance of three feet from the 

 ground. A little higher the trunk divides into seven or eight large 

 branches, each of which is nearly five feet in circumference. At thirty 

 feet from the ground the limbs are seven and eight inches through. 

 The largest grove is in the neighborhood of Knight's Ferry, and con- 

 sists of fifteen massive black fig trees, which, though set sixty feet apart, 

 mingle their branches overhead and form a network through which, in 

 the summer, hardly a beam of light can pass. 



Such groves are frequently seen in the older settled parts of the 

 State. Perhaps the most interesting single fig tree is that on Rancho 

 Chico, quite near the residence of General Bidwell. It was planted in 

 1856, and has attained a marvelous growth. One foot above the ground 

 the trunk measures eleven feet in circumference; the wide-spreading 

 branches have been trained toward the ground and, taking root there, 

 banyan-like, they now form a wonderful enclosure over one hundred 

 and fifty feet in diameter, the tree is loaded every year. 



The crop on these large trees is proportionate to their size and, 

 entering their area in the morning during the ripening season, one can 

 scarcely step without crushing figs, though the fruit may be gathered up 

 each day and placed in the sun for drying. 



REGIONS SUITED FOR THE FIG 



Though there are still many fine points to be determined as to what 

 situations and conditions favor the production of the very finest figs, and 

 there are indications that there is possibly much difference, it may be 

 truly said that a very small part of the State is really unsuited to its 

 growth. If one shuns the immediate coast of the upper part of the 

 State, where the summer temperature is too low for successful ripening, 

 and keeps below the altitude of the mountains where winter killing of 

 the tree is possible, he can grow figs almost anywhere. 



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