VARIETIES OF THE FIG 331 



It is an interesting fact that after this strenuous work was success- 

 fully accomplished it was ascertained that the fig wasp had really 

 reached California without assistance before 1880 and has been estab- 

 lished in San Joaquin county since that remote date. 



To avail himself of the benefits of caprification, every grower 

 of varieties which require it must also grow suitable Capri figs and 

 establish the insect in them. California nurserymen supply these and 

 the insects also when the trees are of suitable age to receive them. 



FOES OF THE FIG 



The fig is freer from insect pests than other fruit trees, and yet it 

 is a mistake to consider it wholly free. The writer has seen the leaves 

 well covered with a lecanium scale and has found a moth larva boring 

 in the pith of the young shoots; still, practically, the fig tree in Cali- 

 fornia has not yet suffered from insects. 



The gophers have a pronounced appetite for fig roots, and their 

 presence should be carefully watched for. Swine have a liking for fig 

 bark. The trees of the grand grove planted at Hock Farm, on the 

 Feather River, by General Sutter, were completely girdled from the 

 ground as high as a pig could reach by standing on its hind legs. 

 Figs make good food for hogs, and plantations have been made with 

 this in view, but if the hogs are to be harvesters, it will be well to 

 protect the stems of the trees from them. 



VARIETIES OF THE FIG 



The fig presents what may be termed an aggravated example of 

 the confused nomenclature which pervades California fruits. Dr. Eisen 

 has made a commendable effort to bring order out of chaos by a study 

 of foreign records and locally-grown fruit, and has published a cata- 

 logue of varieties chiefly grown in California, with descriptions of each 

 in Bulletin 5 of the Division of Pomology of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture.* The following enumeration is largely restricted to 

 varieties which have been commercially propagated: 



Adriatic. Size, medium, roundish; neck medium; stalk short; ribs obscure; 

 eye open, with red iris; skin very thin, greenish in the shade, yellowish in the 

 sun ; pulp bright strawberry red or white, with violet streaks in the meat ; varies 

 in quality according to location. Very productive and often very profitable as 

 dried product. Apt to sour if weather is dark or showery during ripening. This 

 variety is not identical with that known in Italy as Adriatic. 



Agen. Medium size, roundish; skin bright green, cracking longitudinally 

 when ripe, showing white bands; flesh deep red, very rich; a good bearer, but 

 very late, requiring a long hot season. 



Angelique; syn. Angelica. Medium, pyriform; ribs, prominent; yellowish 

 white; pulp white, with rose-colored center; leaves five-lobed. A very good 

 variety in some of the coast valleys. 



*A much fuller discussion of fig varieties is to be found in Dr. Eisen's Bulletin 9, 

 already cited. Many notes are made of the fruiting in the late John Rock's collection on the 

 grounds of the California Nursery Co., at Niles, Alameda County, of many introduced varieties 

 which have not been commercially propagated in California. 



