330 CALIFORNIA FRUITS I HOW TO GROW THEM 



CAPRIFICATION* 



Caprification consists in suspending the fruit of the wild or Capri 

 fig in the branches of the tree of improved variety, that the pollen may 

 be carried by an insect from the former to the later. Until the present 

 decade in California has never been able to produce dried figs equal to 

 the fig of commerce or the Smyrna fig. This was, at first, thought 

 to be due to lack of the Smyrna variety. After painstaking effort this 

 variety was introduced. Trees grew readily from the cuttings ; fruit 

 appeared upon them and dropped before maturity. Doubt then arose 

 as to whether importers had not been deceived, and other efforts were 

 made which resulted in other importations. These also cast to the 

 ground immature figs. Discussion turned then upon the fact of caprifi- 

 cation the necessity of having the fruit of the Capri or wild fig 

 adjacent to the fruit of the Smyrna fig so that insects from the Capri 

 might visit the fruit of the improved variety and pollinate its inclosed 

 flowers, which, appearing upon the inner wall of an almost closed 

 cavity, could not be reached by ordinary visiting insects. The wild 

 tree had already been introduced and were freely growing near the 

 others, but this fact availed nothing the figs fell just the same from 

 the Smyrna trees. In 1890 Mr. George C. Roeding, of Fresno, essayed 

 to demonstrate the fact that the lack of the pollination was the secret 

 of failure, and he succeeded in introducing the Capri pollen into the 

 eye of the Smyrna fig, and secured thereby the retention of such 

 pollinated figs upon the trees, and when ripened and dried these had 

 the Smyrna character. The demonstration was complete that Cali- 

 fornia could not grow Smyrna figs without the pollinating agency 

 found to be essential to success in Smyrna. This agent is a minute 

 wasp called the blastophaga an insect so minute that it can make its 

 way through the mesh Of ordinary cheese-cloth and can enter the almost 

 closed eye of the young Fig so minute that a magnifying glass is 

 necessary to give one any clear idea of its outline. For years constant 

 effort has been made by various parties to secure the introduction of 

 this insect. Urgent appeals were made to the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, after private undertakings failed, to secure the insect 

 alive or otherwise in form for permanent residence. In April, 1899, 

 the feat was accomplished, the blastophagas b.eing received from Algiers 

 as collected and forwarded by W. T. Swingle to Mr. Roeding. Their 

 offspring appeared in large numbers during the summer and fall of 

 the same year. On the basis of this achievement the commercial 

 production of a true Smyrna fig in California began and has rapidly 

 developed. Mr. Roeding gave his product the musical patronymic 

 "Calimyrna," which now adheres also the the variety from which it 

 is produced. 



_ *In a general treatise like this only a passing reference can be made of this subject, 

 which is perhaps the most interesting in the whole realm of entomo-horticulture. The fie; 

 grower should secure the following monographs: "Smyrna Fig Culture in the United States," 

 by L. O. Howard. Year Book of U. S. Dept. of Agr. for 1900; "The Fig its History, 

 Culture and Curing," by Gustav Eisen, Bulletin No. 9, Div. of Pomology, U. S. Dept. of 

 Agr., 1901; "The Smyrna Fig at Home and Abroad," by George C. Roeding, Fresno, Cal., 

 1903; "Some Points in the History of Caprification in the Life History of the Fig," by 

 W. T. Swingle; Report of Riverside Fruit Growers' Convention, 1908; "The Latest develop- 

 ment in Fig Culture," by G. P. Rixford, Pacific Rural Press, December 18 and 25, 1909; 

 also December 17, 1910, and July 13, 1912. The same journal has an excellent discussion of 

 Caprification methods in its issue of January 10, 1913. 



