SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



252 



merce. As a result, in 1880 and 1882, Mr. 

 Gulian P. Rixford, of the San Francisco 

 Bulletin, imported into California, by the 

 aid of E. F. Smithers, United States Con- 

 sul at Smyrna, and A. Sida, an American 

 merchant in Smyrna, about 14,000 cuttings 

 of the supposedly best varieties of Smyrna 

 fig-trees. These cuttings were widely dis- 

 tributed and were known as the " Bulletin " 

 cuttings. This effort received wide news- 

 paper notoriety, and much was expected of 

 it, but when the trees came into bearing 

 it was found that the fruit invariably 

 dropped on or before reaching the size of 

 a marble. . . . 



In 1886 Mr. F. Roeding, a banker in San 

 Francisco and proprietor of the Fancher 

 Creek Nurseries of Fresno, having become 

 convinced that California could be made 

 to grow as good a fig as could be grown 

 in Smyrna, sent his foreman, Mr. W. C. 

 West, to Smyrna for the purpose of investi- 

 gating the fig industry on the spot. Mr. 

 West remained in Smyrna four months 

 and succeeded in securing several thousand 

 Smyrna fig cuttings, as well as cuttings of 

 wild figs and a few of such varieties as are 

 grown for home consumption. He was 

 watched by the people constantly. He was 

 refused the sale of cuttings, and finally suc- 

 ceeded only by buying through a foreign res- 

 ident, who was not suspected of any inten- 

 tion to export. After a journey of several 

 months the cuttings arrived in Fresno in 

 good condition and were planted in 1888 

 in the Fancher Creek Nursery, 20 acres 

 being planted that year, 20 more in 1889, 

 and in 1891 an additional 20 acres. 



The importation at this time of the wild, 

 or caprifig, cuttings was the most important 

 step which had yet been taken toward the 

 solution of the problem. This importation 

 was due to the tardy recognition of the fact 

 that the Smyrna fig, the standard fig of 

 commerce, owes its peculiar flavor to the 

 number of ripe seeds which it contains, and 

 that 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. [This, it was discov- 

 ered, is effected through the interposition 

 of an insect. See INSECTS.] HOWARD 

 Smyrna Fig Culture in the United States 

 (Year-look of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, 1900, p. 80). 



1231. FIRE AND BROOM AS TOOLS 

 OF WOMAN Primitive Cooking Utensils. 

 As soon as the tree was felled, or taking ad- 

 vantage of the wind-giant's sport, [women] 

 burned and hacked off a convenient length of 

 the trunk; then, gathering from the forests 

 a supply of fat pine knots, they burned out 

 the cavity of the future boiler. They care- 

 fully watched the progress of the fire, and 

 when it threatened to spread laterally they 

 checked its course in that direction by 

 means ' of strips of green bark or mud or 

 water. As soon as the ashes and charred 

 wood prevented the further action of the 



fire, this marvelous Gill-at-all-trades re- 

 moved the fire and brushed out the debris 

 with an improvised broom of grass. Then, 

 by means of a scraper of flint which she had 

 made, she dug away the charcoal until she 

 had exposed a clean surface of wood. The 

 firing and scraping were repeated until the 

 " dugout " assumed the desired form. The 

 trough completed, it was ready to do the 

 boiling for the family as soon as the meat 

 could be prepared and the stones heated. 

 This apprenticeship of fire in wood-working 

 calls for woman's help in more industries 

 than one not strictly her own. MASON 

 Woman's Share in Primitive Culture, ch. 2, 

 p. 32. (A., 1894.) 



1232. FIRE AND ITS USES Fires of 

 Cave-men in the Mammoth Period Great 

 Agency Utilized by Man Alone. Man under- 

 stands fire and deals with it in ways quite 

 beyond the intelligence of the lower animals. 

 There is an old story how, in the forests of 

 equatorial Africa, when travelers had gone 

 away in the morning and left their fires 

 burning, the huge manlike apes called pon- 

 gos (probably our gorillas) would come and 

 sit round the burning logs till they went 

 out, not having the sagacity to lay more 

 wood on. This story is often repeated to 

 contrast human intelligence with the dul- 

 ness of even the highest apes. Of course 

 there had been forest-fires in ages before 

 man, as when the trees had been set in 

 flames by lightning or by a lava-stream. 

 But of all creatures man alone has known 

 how to manage fire, to carry it from place 

 to place with burning brands, and when it 

 went out to produce it afresh. No savage 

 tribe seems really to have been found so 

 low as to be without fire. In the limestone 

 caverns, among the relics of the mammoth 

 period, morsels of charcoal and burnt bones 

 are found embedded, which show that even 

 in that remote antiquity the rude cave-men 

 made fires to cook their food and warm 

 themselves by. TYLOR Anthropology, ch. 11, 

 p. 260. (A./ 1899.) 



1233. FIRE A NECESSITY OF CIV- 

 ILIZATION Once Deified Primitive Fire- 

 worship. Remember now that fire is one of 

 the most valuable servants of mankind; 

 that it is the source of all artificial heat 

 and light; that in the steam-engine it is 

 the apparent origin of that power which 

 animates the commerce and the industry of 

 the civilized world ; that under its influence 

 iron becomes plastic, and the ores give up 

 their metallic treasures ; that it is, in fine, 

 the agent of all the arts and you cannot 

 wonder that in a ruder age the Romans 

 should have enthroned its presiding deity on 

 Olympus, or the Persians worshiped its 

 supposed essence as divinity itself. COOKE 

 Religion and Chemistry, ch. 3, p. 84. (A., 

 1897.) 



1234. FIRE ENABLES MAN TO SUB- 

 DUE THE EARTH It is scarcely possible 

 to conceive of man without fire. Very early 



