32 THE SMYRNA FIG AT HOME AND ABROAD 



All figs are harvested by the last of September. Should heavy rains occur before 

 this time, the figs remaining on the trees are unfit for packing, and if gathered are 

 used for distilling purposes. From a commercial standpoint, only one crop of 

 Smyrna Figs is borne annually. The fruit appears like small buttons on the young 

 wood in the latter part of May, is fertilized in June, and matures from August to 

 October. 



The drying ground is usually an open space in the orchard where a few trees have 

 died out, and have not been replanted. The method of drying is very simple. A 

 layer of rushes, the same as is used for hanging the Capri figs in the Smyrna Fig 

 trees, is laid on the ground, two inches thick, in rows three feet wide, and from 

 sixty to seventy-five feet long, and with a narrow walk between each row, to permit 

 the workmen to handle the fruit. The contents of the baskets are dumped out on 

 the rushes, and no attention is paid as to whether the figs touch each other or not, or 

 how they lie. They are spread out on the rushes by hand, the only precaution exer- 

 cised to have them all in one single layer. 



Each fig is not turned individually, but they are shuffled around every day with the 

 hands. After the smaller figs, which naturally dry the quickest, have been gathered 

 up, the larger ones are placed by themselves, and turned by hand. The time of 

 drying varies from two to four days, the rapidity of desiccation depending on the 

 weather. The proper degree of dryness is determined by feeling and kneading the 

 figs between the lingers. If they have a leathery feeling to the touch, it is a sure 

 sign they are sufficiently dried. It is in determining whether the figs have been 

 sufficiently dried, that the experience of the foreman in charge of the orchards comes 

 into play. All the figs which are sufficiently dry are gathered each afternoon just 

 before sunset. Tule mats are used for covering the figs at night the day before taking 

 them into the shed, should there be much moisture in the atmosphere. The storing 

 shed is usually a tumble down adobe structure, in many cases a small room 

 partitioned from the dwelling in which the foreman and his family live. When the 

 pile of figs is large enough, they are sorted over into three grades, no care being 

 taken to separate the split and sour figs from the others. The grades are made 

 according to size. The lack of cleanliness and the crude and careless manner in 

 which the figs are handled, show how little regard these people have for those 

 who are to consume the fruit. They are never processed in any way from the time 

 they drop from the trees until they finally are packed in the wooden boxes for export. 



However, there is no mistaking the fact of their fine quality. When piled in the 

 sheds, the skin is white, soft and pliable, and has a silky feeling when handled. 

 The pulp is a mass of honey and seeds, giving to the fig a luscious sweetness not 

 found in any other dried fruit. 



TRANSPORTING TO MARKET. 



When enough/ figs have been gathered by a grower they are packed in large 

 goat-hair sacks, holding about 250 pounds each. A piece of paper is placed in the top 

 of the sacks acd the flaps are drawn up and over this with heavy twine. Camel 

 trains visit the various orchards in a certain district, and two of the goat-hair sacks 

 are loaded on each animal. The train, as soon as the camels are loaded up, starts for 

 the nearest railroad station, where the bags are unloaded in a large freight shed, 

 and later to the small box and flat cars standing on the siding. 



The Ottoman Railroad Company makes special provision for the transportation of 

 the figs, and daily trains leave the stations in the fig district every afternoon, 

 arriving at Smyrna during the night, all stopping at the outskirts, close to the old 

 Caravan Bridge. Each owner has a letter or brand sown into his sacks, for the 

 purpose of identifying his figs, and also to recover his sacks, should they be lost. 

 These goat-hair sacks are rather expensive, and are used exclusively for shipping the 



