HORTICULTURE BY IRRIGATION. 



THE FIG IN AMERICA. 



FIGS are produced in a number of the States of 

 the Union, although California is the only State 

 which may be said to send cured figs 1p market in 

 commercial quantities. The fruit is produced in 

 Florida and adjoining States, as well as in Louisiana, 

 Texas, the Carolinas and a few other places, though 

 from none of these regions are the cured figs sent to 

 market on a large scale, nor does the product com- 

 mand more than local attention. There are some 

 drawbacks to fig culture, even in the localities best 

 adapted to the production of this delicious and 

 wholesome fruit. Experience on the Pacific coast 

 seems to prove that the fig will thrive well throughout 

 the arid belt wherever the temperature does not 

 reach too low a point in winter. On a variety of soils 

 it will do well, though on lands too moist, or not 

 well drained the fruit drops badly or sours, thus 

 seriously affecting the profits of the crop. 



For years active efforts have been made in Cali- 

 fornia to produce a fig equal to the best imported 

 article, and with the exception that thus far no fig 

 has been produced on a large scale having fructified 

 seeds, this has been accomplished. The curing and 

 manipulation of figs preparatory to market require 

 the utmost care, and painstaking supervision of an 

 exacting nature. A few growers in California have 

 acquired this art, and as a result put upon the market 

 a fig which is pronounced by many equal to the 

 best imported from Smyrna. We are not prepared, 

 however, to say that this is strictly true, and for this 

 reason : All good Smyrna figs contain numberless 

 seeds, most of which have kernels or meats. 



THE SEEDS GIVE FLAVOR. 



It is found that these perfect seeds give a charac- 

 teristic flavor to the foreign fig which the best grown 

 and cured in the United States does not and cannot 

 possess. As stated above, the figs grown and cured 

 in this country do not contain the fructified seeds 

 found in the foreign fruit. The seeds are mere shells 

 and have no kernel or meat inside, thus lacking the 

 flavoring material for the best result in cured figs. 

 Much money and time have been expended in obtain- 

 ing from the best fig growing districts of Asia Minor 

 the most valued varieties of this fruit, but thus far 

 it has been found that they do not reproduce the 

 perfect seed in this country, much to the disappoint- 

 ment of growers. From time immemorial, indeed, 

 for thousands of years probably, it has been the cus- 

 tom in fig growing regions of Asia Minor and in other 



ia8 



places about the shores of the Mediterranean to cause 

 the fig to be fertilized through the medium of am 

 insect, which we have not yet been able to do success- 

 fully in this country. This is accomplished by the 

 entrance through the eye of the fig at a certain period 

 of a small insect known as the blastophaga, or fig 

 wasp. These wasps are bred in a variety of wild fig 

 called the Capri fig, branches of which containing 

 fruit are hung among the limbs of the cultivated 

 varieties. By this means the flowers of the cultivated 

 figs are fertilized, as many varieties of fruits grown in 

 this country are fertilized, through the agency of 

 bees. Although it is disputed by some authorities 

 that the fig wasp is a necessity in the production of 

 the best figs, yet the custom is so universal and of so 

 long standing that it is firmly believed to be necessary 

 by most foreign fig producers. 



EXPERIMENTS IN CALIFORNIA. 



Efforts have been made in California to establish 

 the blastophaga among the fig orchards of that State, 

 but thus far without avail. Those insects, which 

 were procured at great trouble and expense, did not 

 long survive the conditions to which they were born 

 in the Golden State. Other difficulties also present 

 themselves. It is found that some approved varieties 

 of foreign figs so change their nature when trans- 

 planted to this country that the eye of the fruit re- 

 mains practically closed during the period of possible 

 fecundation, hence it is believed that for such vari- 

 eties the fig wasp would be of little or no use, even 

 were it able to survive our climate. 



The problem, therefore, is to produce a fig which 

 may be fertilized by the methods known to our other 

 fruits, or to acclimate the blastophaga and provide 

 the capri fig for his abode, as in the Old World. That 

 one or other, or both, of these things may be done is 

 believed by some of the most advanced fig growers 

 of the Pacific coast; but that American figs are yet 

 inferior to the best foreign brands in the characteris- 

 tics above pointed out is well known to our most 

 expert growers and dealers. 



As showing the field now open to be occupied by 

 American fig growers so soon as they shall be able to 

 put upon the market an article equal or superior to 

 the foreign fruit, the following figures are given : 



For the year ending with June last, there were 

 imported into the United States 10,503,928 pounds of 

 figs, while the home product was below a half-million 

 pounds, most of which were produced in California 

 Among the best varieties grown in that State may be 

 mentioned the " White Adriatic " and the " Bulletin 



