THE SMYRNA FIG AT HOME AND ABROAD 41 



CHAPTER VII. 

 AN HISTORICAL VIEW OF OUR ORCHARD. 



The history of fig culture in California is indeed fraught with disappointment, 

 hopes and ambitions, and this grove for the first fourteen years of its existence was 

 no exception to the rule in so far as results to its owners were concerned. Taking 

 its inception in 1888 it has been the seat of the largest and most varied line of ex- 

 perimental fig cultures on the Pacific Coast, a line of painstaking effort entailing no 

 end of labor and the expenditure of much money. At particular periods success 

 seemed almost assured, only to see our hopes again turn to ashes. The first plant- 

 ings were made in 1888; in 1889 twenty acres additional were set out; and in 1891, 

 feeling very much encouraged over the experiments in producing the figs by artificial 

 means, another twenty acres was put out, consisting entirely of the Lop variety, with 

 the exception of forty-eight Capri trees, planted in a single row. 



From letters written by Mr. West, and from what meagre information I had suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining from reports made by the leading scientists, who had been in- 

 vestigating the subject of caprification, I was fully aware from the time the ship- 

 ment of cuttings was received from Asia Minor, that Smyrna Figs could not be pro- 

 duced without the fig wasp, Blastophaga grossorum. In the year 1890, a few of the 

 Smyrna Figs as well as the Capri Figs having produced fruit, I determined to try 

 an experiment of artifical fertilization, although I was extremely doubtful of success. 

 On June 15, quite a number of the Capri Figs were opened; the stamens or male 

 blossoms at that time were matured and covered with pollen, which when shaken 

 into the palm of the hand, and then transferred by means of a wooden tooth-pick 

 into the orifice of the fig, fertilized the female flowers. Of the half dozen figs thus 

 treated, every one matured, while all the others on the tree, when one-third grown, 

 shriveled up and dropped to the ground. When the fertilized fruits were dried, they 

 were carefully examined and to my surprise, were found to contain a large number 

 of fertile seeds, with a flavor very similar to the imported fig, but not equal to it, as 

 only a portion of the female flowers had developed seeds, due to the crude manner 

 of fertilization. 



To my mind this experiment proved conclusively that although other varieties 

 of figs grown in California would mature their fruit, the Smyrna would not do so 

 unless the flowers were fertilized, either by artificial means or by the fig wasp. 

 It will be readily understood that artificial fertilization could only be carried on to 

 a limited extent, and even these results were not satisfactory for carrying on the 

 experiment, for owing to the crude method employed, the tissues of the fig be- 

 came more or less injured. 



Experiments of artificial fertilization were carried on for a number of years in 

 the absence of the insect. In the year 1891, the old method was improved upon by 

 using a glass tube, drawn to a fine point at one end for introducing the pollen. After 

 gathering a small quantity of the pollen in the tube, it was inserted in the orifice of 

 the fig, and by blowing through the other end, the pollen was more evenly distributed 

 than by the method followed the previous year; 150 fruits represented the results 

 of this experiment and when dried, they were sent to a number of the leading horti- 



