1236 



FIG 



FIG 



Figs have been cultivated on the Pacific coast for 

 more than two centuries, as it is thought that they were 

 in the Mission gardens at Loreto, Lower California, 

 before 1710. Father Zephyrin's monumental "History 

 of the Franciscan Missions in Calfornia," three volumes 

 of which have now been issued (1913), contains many 

 facts about the first Mission gardens from San Diego to 

 Dolores and Sonoma. The fig was in them all, and was 

 spoken of by the early visitors to California, such as 

 Malaspina, Menzies, Mocino and Vancouver. Santa 

 Clara Mission had rows of very large fig trees before 

 1792. 



At the present time (1913), the fig has become 

 established over almost the entire horticultural area of 

 California, wherever the temperature does not fall 

 below 18 F. It does not thrive where there is much fog 

 or where the summers are cold and windy, but even in 

 such places if somewhat protected by walls or build- 

 ings, it matures fruit. When planted close to its cli- 

 matic limits, a young tree needs special protection the 

 first few years until the wood is mature and the growth 

 less rapid. The fig is most at home in southern Cali- 

 fornia, over the Coast Range Valleys, the San Joaquin 

 and Sacramento Valleys 

 to Northern Shasta, and 

 up the lower slopes of 

 the Sierras to about 

 the elevation of 2,500 



1506. Young fig tree, and fig-drying in open air, California. 



feet in central California to 3,000 feet and upward 

 farther south. Magnificent single trees and stately 

 avenues abound in various places. Many trees now 

 standing have trunks 3 feet in diameter. One in 

 Stanislaus County is 80 feet in height; another in Butte 

 County has rooted from drooping branches until it 

 seems a whole grove. This is the notable General Bid- 

 well tree at Chico (Mission Black variety) which covers 

 a circle of 200 feet in diameter and has long been the 

 pride of the region. Superb fig trees are found in all 

 the old foothill and valley towns of California. A 

 magnificent grove is on the old Thurber farm near 

 Vacaville. Large commercial fig orchards have been 

 planted, especially in Nesuo, Los Angeles, Butte, 

 Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Tulare, Merced, 

 Sonoma, Placer, San Joaquin and Shasta Counties. 

 The Maslin orchard near Loomis and the Roeding 

 orchard east of Fresno are two of the most famous and 

 successful ones in California. Fresno County now has 

 220,000 bearing fig trees, and Los Angeles nearly 

 100,000. 



Varieties. 



There are many horticultural varieties known to 

 the markets and catalogues under innumerable syn- 

 onyms. Their classification is by shape, color of skin 

 and color of flesh. The shape is round or turbinate in 

 some sorts, pyriform or obovate in others. The skin 

 varies in color in different varieties from green through 

 pale yellow, buff, light brown, reddish brown and purple, 

 to black. The flesh is almost white, opaline, or various 

 shades of red; it can be described as melting, spicy, 

 juicy, coarse or even dry in a few old sorts. The size 

 varies from those hardly as large as a green gage plum 

 to others that sometimes weigh four or five ounces 

 apiece. Eisen, in his useful and thorough monograph 



on the fig published by the Department of Agriculture 

 (Division of Pomology, Bulletin No. 9, 1901) lists and 

 describes nearly 400 varieties from different parts of 

 the world. Eleven of these are Smyrnas, and twenty 

 are varieties of the Capri or wild fig, differing in season 

 so as to afford a succession and thus increase their 

 value in caprification. Baja California, and Sonora, 

 fine regions for the fig, have produced some varieties 

 of promise, and others have been reported from South 

 Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, northern 

 India, Algiers and many other places. 



When the earlier California nurserymen began to 

 grow figs, they first secured the Black Mission variety 

 which the padres had brought from Mexico, and the 

 little White Marseilles, which was at Santa Clara and 

 Santa Barbara before the discovery of gold. They also 

 obtained from Ellwanger and Barry, of Rochester, and 

 from Berckmans, of Georgia, between I860 and 1870, 

 all the varieties then grown in America, principally for 

 pot and greenhouse culture, not more than twenty-five 

 sorts in all, chief among which were the Brown Tur- 

 key, Celeste, the Green and Black Ischias and the 

 large Brunswick. Georgia and the Gulf coast were cul- 

 tivating in gardens these sorts for home use, especially 

 Celeste, which is fine for canning and preserving. 

 There was therefore, much early correspondence be- 

 tween California nurserymen like William B. West, 

 John Rock, Felix Gillet, James Shinn and others, and 

 the fig-growers in the South, whose main drawback 

 was in the frequent summer rains. Almost immedi- 

 ately, however, the Californians began to import trees 

 from France, Italy, Spain, and later began to study 

 the Smyrna fig industries. The catalogues of Califor- 

 nia nurserymen, by 1880, contained about 150 named 

 varieties with plenty of duplications, as was natural. 

 The University of California experiment stations, by 

 1890, had about seventy-five varieties under trial and 

 distributed them with great energy. The late John 

 Rock, one of the most ardent horticulturists of his 

 time in America, made many trips abroad and seldom 

 failed to send back new kinds of figs. The inevitable 

 and essential sifting down continued for over thirty 

 years from 1880 until the nurseries of today list not to 

 exceed thirty varieties. The principal sorts now in 

 general cultivation, besides the very important Smyrna 

 and Capri varieties sent out chiefly by George Roed- 

 ing of Fresno, are the following: 



A large amount of new experimenting has been done 

 in California with fig varieties by the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry which took up the work so well begun by 

 Hilgard and others at the California Station. Lack of 

 means and a general change of the University policy 

 toward the sub-stations (where the fig orchards were 

 located) led to the abandonment of those useful trials 

 about 1902. Fortunately, the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture had become deeply interested in 

 the Smyrna fig problem, and soon established plant 

 gardens in California. Beagles, who has charge of the 

 one near Chico, furnishes the following list of the varie- 

 ties being tested there in 1912, in addition to a great 

 many seedlings and crosses under numbers and not 

 yet in bearing. The list, as furnished by Beagles, is 

 arranged in the order of securing the varieties, not 

 alphabetically, and the first forty-four sorts are from 

 the well-authenticated collection at Chiswick, England : 



