THE SMYRNA FIG AT HOME AND ABROAD 21 



miles off the coast of Smyrna, where a great many Capri Fig trees are growing. 

 The figs during that season sold for 50 piestas an Oke. An Oke is 2.83 pounds and a 

 piesta is about 4% cents. In the season of 1901, the crop of Capri Figs was large 

 and one piesta an Oke was the average price paid. Money is never too plentiful 

 with these people, but so deep rooted is the fact that the Blastophaga must be pres- 

 ent to develop their figs, they go to almost any extreme in price to secure what 

 they want. In this connection it is a novel and interesting sight to watch the 

 Turkish peasant women, their figures enveloped in a loose cotton garment, and their 

 faces concealed from too observant eyes, come slowly walking up the narrow streets 

 of Aidin in the early morning hours, with baskets containing from thirty to forty 

 pounds of figs perched on their heads, and carrying in their hands bunches of the 

 rushes neatly tied up for stringing the figs; the small donkey, the beast of burden 

 for animate as well as inaminate freight, also contributes his share of the male figs. 

 In this case they are carried in large burlap grain sacks, one on each side of the 

 pack saddle; all, bound for the fig bazaar, a street designated by this name, deriving 

 its title from the fact that is has been used for years as a market for selling Male 

 figs. The fruit comes from the small gardens in the town or is gathered in the im- 

 mediate suburbs. 



The women, with their baskets in front of them, squat down tailor fashion in the 

 narrow streets, and silently and calmly await a purchaser of their wares. Being 

 anything but handsome, great care is taken to conceal their faces from the eyes of 

 the men, particularly of foreigners. Working in the fields and the hard life they 

 lead makes all the women among the agricultural classes prematurely old. It is 

 no uncommon sight during the height of the Male Fig season, to see from seventy- 

 five to one hundred of these women congregated in the bazaar. 



The buyers of the figs begin to arrive about 7 a.m. They take a fig from a 

 basket, break it open, if the female insects are found to be crawling around freely, 

 and the fig is well supplied with pollen, a sale is quickly consummated. The larg- 

 est figs always command the best prices. The grower having secured his supply of 

 figs, loads them in bags on his donkey, and goes to his orchard, which may be a 

 number of miles distant. 



Some remarks made to me by an old Turk, who had been in the business for 

 years, on the value of the various insects in the figs, were indeed amusing. Break- 

 ing open one of them, and pointing to the male wasp, I learned through my inter- 

 preter that it was a very bad worm, the female wasp was pronounced to be a good 

 insect, but the parasites, Philotrypesis, which were present in large quantities, 

 were said to be the most valuable of all! Verily, a little learning Is a dangerous 

 thing. 

 > 



FIG GARDENS. 



This is the term applied to all orchards, whether of figs or other fruit trees. 

 None of these gardens contain as a general rule, more than five hundred to one 

 thousand trees, and where planted no other variety of tree or crop is grown among 

 them. None of the orchards present a very attractive appearance. Trees are con- 

 stantly dying out from want of care and from general debility, many of which are 

 replaced with others planted in the very same spot. Trees of all ages from one 

 year to fifty are growing in all the old gardens, giving them an uneven and spotted 

 appearance. This unsightliness of the orchards is further enhanced by the mass of 

 dead wood appearing above the green growth in the tops of the trees, caused by the 

 terrible freeze of 1898. It was only in the season of 1901 that the trees fully re- 

 covered from this terrible ordeal. No regularity was observed in planting the older 

 orchards and most of them are very much out of line, the distance between the 

 trees varying from thirty to fifty feet. 



