ix STOEY OF THE SMYENA FIG 103 



difficulties which took some time and patience in 

 overcoming. 



Figs grow freely in Spain and in France, and, 

 therefore, as in so many other cases, it was the 

 Spaniards who first took them to America. In 

 this case the Spaniards were assisted by the 

 French, who took their own figs with them to the 

 Southern States. Throughout the greater part of 

 the Southern and Western States, then, fig trees 

 are common and fruit freely. But the fruit is 

 eaten green, either fresh from the tree, or stewed, 

 or preserved. Sometimes it is tinned, as peaches 

 and apricots are tinned ; only rarely are attempts 

 made to dry it. One reason for this is that, in the 

 South, figs ripen at the time of the summer rains, 

 when drying would be difficult. 



The result is that, until recently, the fact that 

 figs grew all over the warmer parts of the States 

 did not prevent an enormous import of dried figs 

 from Turkey ; this import at one time being thirteen 

 and a half million pounds weight per annum. 



These imported figs are of the kind called 

 Smyrna figs, the kind that comes to this country in 

 the familiar little wooden boxes, and which we eat in 

 the winter months. What the Americans wanted 

 to do, then, was to supply this demand for dried 

 figs, and not simply to be content to grow green 

 figs for home use. For some time an attempt 



