i6 4 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



known to bear well for years. In the South the fruit is used 

 almost wholly for household purposes, being eaten fresh 

 from the tree, sliced and served with sugar and cream, or 

 stewed and made into puddings and pies. In California a 

 serious effort has been made to produce salable dried figs, 

 but no success has attended these undertakings. As a matter 

 of fact, they have never produced the popular fig of com- 

 merce, which is the Smyrna. The price of this fig in the 

 New York market ranges from 10 to 20 cents per pound, 

 while the price realized for the California variety is but a 

 fraction above 7 cents per pound, and when the Smyrna figs 

 arrive it is difficult to dispose of the home-grown variety at 

 any price. The successful production of the genuine Smyrna 

 fig is a new industrial interest. 



A little more than twenty years ago a large number of cut- 

 tings of the best varieties of the Smyrna fig were secured 

 from abroad and were widely distributed and advertised, 

 and it was confidently expected that a new industry would 

 be the outgrowth of the undertaking. When these trees came 

 to maturity, however, they could not be induced to ripen 

 their fruit. The trees seemed to thrive ; no fault could be 

 found with the climatic conditions under which many of the 

 trees were grown and the fruit formed regularly, but when 

 it reached the size of a cherry or a marble it invariably 

 dropped from the tree. Many theories were advanced as 

 to why this phenomenon occurred, the most generally accepted 

 being that the Smyrna fig growers from whom the cuttings 

 had been purchased, fearing competition if the Americans 

 should become successful cultivators, had forwarded only 

 worthless varieties. 



The efforts to establish commercial fig culture were not 



