ix STOKY OF THE SMYBNA FIG 111 



could be carefully protected from the cold. On 

 these three trees about a thousand caprifigs con- 

 taining resting-wasps were counted. This done, 

 there was nothing more to do except wait for the 

 .spring. 



When the spring came it was decided that the 

 subject was so important that a special expert from 

 the Department of Agriculture should be sent to 

 watch events. This expert spent almost his whole 

 day in the orchard, watching the insects, and trying 

 to find out all that was happening. About the 

 end of March the wasps finished their winter sleep 

 and began to come forth. By this time the capri- 

 fig trees were beginning to produce their spring 

 crop, and into these the emerging wasps passed to 

 lay their eggs. This went on for about five weeks, 

 and the result was the swelling up of a number of 

 the spring figs, showing that the wasps had entered 

 them, laid their eggs there, and the young wasps 

 hatched from the eggs were now feeding upon the 

 interior. 



By the early part of June the wasps had ex- 

 hausted all they could find in the spring figs, and 

 began to emerge in search of new figs in which 

 they in their turn might lay their eggs. This was 

 the critical moment, for it was these emerging wasps 

 which were relied upon to fertilise the edible figs. 



All hands were set to work, and the party was 



