HORTICULTURE 301 



served on the table with sugar and cream. They are also stewed 

 and made into puddings and pies, and are canned and preserved. In 

 this section figs are occasionally, but seldom, dried for household use, 

 as they ripen at the period of summer showers, which makes drying 

 difficult. Much more of an effort to produce a salable dried fig has 

 been made in California than in the South, especially during the last 

 twenty years, and a greater success has been secured, probably on 

 account of the drier climate. 



The Smyrna fig, the standard fig of commerce, owes its peculiar 

 flavor to the number of ripe seeds which it contains, and these ripe 

 seeds are only to be gained by the fertilization of the flowers of the 

 Smyrna fig with pollen derived from the wild fig, or caprifig. Since 

 time immemorial it has been known that in Oriental regions it has 

 been the custom of the natives to break off the fruits of the caprifig, 

 bring them to the edible fig trees, and tie them to the limbs. From 

 the caprifigs thus brought in there issues a minute insect, which, 

 covered with pollen, crawls into the flower receptacles of the edible 

 fig, fertilizes them, and thus produces a crop of seeds and brings 

 about the subsequent ripening of the fruit. 



Indications are that in very many localities in the interior 

 valleys of California good crops of Smyrna figs can be raised, and 

 there is little doubt that many persons will start orchards of Smyrna 

 fig trees, with the proper springling of caprifigs. This statement 

 holds not only for California, but unquestionably for good fruit- 

 growing regions in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. (Y. B. 1900.) 



NUT FRUITS. 



In the diversification of industries which is now deservedly at- 

 tracting so much thought and attention, the increase of our plants 

 of cultivation should find a plant, and of cultivated plants the nut- 

 producing trees are among the most promising. The nut trees differ 

 very much in certain particulars from other trees which produce 

 edible fruits. They are of the first rank as to size, and the fruit is 

 the true seed only, and is not made up of fleshy coverings of the 

 seed as in the apple, peach, etc. Nuts have, therefore, much less 

 water and a higher nutritive value generally. They are rather of 

 the nature of staple articles of diet and approach the grains in food 

 value. They are, moreover, not of the perishable class and are easily 

 handled with little waste and risk. All of the nut trees are probably 

 capable of improvement, and each has adaptation to its particular 

 situation. One of the most promising in the United States is the 

 chestnut. (Pa. E. S. B. 36.) 



The Chestnut. This is a native of the eastern United States, 

 particularly the mountainous parts, where in the higher and drier 

 soils it is one of the most common as it is one of the most useful of 

 our trees. It is not as widespread as many others and is somewhat 

 limited by soil conditions as well as by latitude. It is not a tree of 

 wet or heavy soils, nor can it be grown successfully in them. Ap- 

 parently it succeeds but poorly in limestone land, but whether from 

 the lime which it contains or because of its heavy clayey character 

 is not known. But in gravelly soils such as are common and ex- 



