THE SMYRNA FIG AT HOME AND ABROAD 49 



CHAPTER IX. 

 AREAS, SOILS AND CLIMATES. 



Figs are often classed as products of the tropics or warmer regions, when, as a 

 matter of fact, the whole family of Ficus cover a wide distribution over the earth's 

 surface, many species withstanding considerable cold. Specifically, the edible figs, 

 (Ficus carica), are native of the thermal belts of Asia Minor, from which they 

 have spread to the warmer localities of the Mediterranean region, the South of 

 France, the Islands of the Pacific, Australia, the South American States, Old Mexico, the 

 Gulf States, and throughout California. This statement is literally true, as applied to 

 the tree; some modification must be made, however, in the yielding of profitable 

 crops, as a situation subject to cool summers and foggy weather is quite apt to retard 

 the development and ripening of the fruit, and at the same time decrease the secre- 

 tion of saccharine or fruit sugars, so essential to the production of merchantable 

 cured figs. Thus it will be seen that California possesses every requisite for the 

 exploitation of the fig industry, particularly in the warm and dry interior valleys, 

 reasonably exempt from biting frosts. Portions of Arizona, Southwestern Texas, the 

 Gulf States, and Old Mexico, are similarly blessed with climatic conditions calcu- 

 lated to furnish congenial conditions for commercial fig culture. The great San 

 Joaquin and Sacramento valleys veritable empires in themselves are destined to 

 be the two great centers of the fig industry in this country. Not only possessing 

 every advantage of soil and climate found in the fig regions of Asia Minor but in 

 addition thereto better methods of culture and handling of the product, there is 

 every reason to believe that the Smyrna Fig will become more of a feature to the 

 landscape than the orange and the lemon, because it luxuriates over a wider 

 geographical area, and has a much wider range of soils and climates. Wherever the 

 summer season is exempt from fogs and frequent rains, and the thermometer does 

 not go below 18 degrees, Fahrenheit, it is a safe proposition to plant the fig as a 

 commercial investment. 



To people unfamiliar with the fig, the first impression is that it is particular as 

 to soils and climates, even in its native habitat. Nothing could be further from the 

 truth. As a matter of fact, it is more indifferent in this respect than any other sort 

 of our standard deciduous fruit trees, and will thrive with less moisture and more 

 neglect and abuse. Its range in" this regard is, indeed, a wide one, a fact which has 

 been amply demonstrated, not only in California, but wherever conditions are at all 

 favorable to its successful culture. Situation is also of no great consequence; trees 

 do equally as well in the foothills and on elevated mesas as on the mountain sides 

 and in the great interior valleys. These remarks apply more essentially to the tree 

 and crops for family use; when grown for commercial purposes, the summer tempera- 

 ture must be sufficiently high to afford ample opportunity for the ripening of the 

 fruit during the summer months, thus affording sufficient time to harvest and sun dry the 

 crop before the fall rains set in. For these reasons commercial Smyrna Fig culture will 

 always command the widest success in the hot and semi-arid interior valleys and 

 along the higher plateaus and table lands of Arizona, Southwestern Texas, Old Mexico, 

 and some of the more sheltered regions of the Gulf States. Of course countries like 



