FIGS IN TURKEY. 767 



tbe tree is found wild and where the best figs of commerce are grown, 

 it is extremely fruitful. 



The best figs for drying come from the valleys of the Meander and 

 the Kaistros, to the south of Smyrna, where the trees are planted with 

 great regularity and care, and the ground is dug and hoed from four to 

 six times during the summer. When the figs reach Smyrna they are 

 sorted by women and packed in boxes by men. They are best when 

 newly packed, and as months go by get drier and harder in the ware- 

 house. Xo one who has not eaten them in the Levant, packed in the 

 ornamental drums in which they are sold for local consumption, knows 

 what the best figs are like. The cardboards of the fig boxes are sup- 

 plied chiefly by Belgium and Austria. 



Two seasons ago 54,000 camel-loads of 4 hundredweight each had 

 reached Smyrna by the 22d of October of that year; and the production 

 increases annually. Fifteen years before that time not more than half 

 that amount was recorded for the whole season. 



England, Germany, and the United States take the greatest part of 

 the figs exported. France, where the smaller and much inferior figs of 

 the Mediterranean are consumed, takes little of the finer kind of the 

 figs of Smyrna. 



The improved facilities of transport which have so much increased 

 the stock brought to market have also brought down prices. Taking 

 averages, prices ranged about ten years ago from $4.08 the kintal (112 

 pounds) for Aidin figs, to $8.75 for Blame's, while the very best, the 

 Bkinis, sometimes brought $19.22 the kintal, or nearly 16J cents per 

 pound. Now small parcels of excellent quality bring about $6.60 the 

 kintal. 



Although throughout the world there are to be found about one hun- 

 dred different species of figs, only some five or six kinds are cultivated 

 in this country. Of these, the best description are called Ele"me", and are 

 grown most largely and in the greatest perfection in the districts around 

 Smyrna ; but considerable quantities are also grown in other parts of 

 Asia Minor. The fruit is of various colors, from deep purple to yellow 

 or nearly white. The tree usually bears two crops, one in the early 

 summer from the buds of the previous year and the other in the autumn 

 from those of the spring growth. The last forms the chief harvest. 



Yield. The trees are propagated by seeds and suckers, and frequently 

 by layers and cuttings. When young they require care in pruning, and 

 the immature fruit formed late in the summer should be removed to 

 strengthen the shoots. 



The Ficus carica, which yields the well-known figs of commerce, is a 

 bush or small tree, rarely more than 18 or 20 feet in height, with broad, 

 rough, deciduous leaves, very deeply lobed in the cultivated variety, but 

 in the wild plant nearly entire. After the young tree attains maturity 

 it receives but little care beyond being occasionally lopped in places and 

 being well manured in the fall of the year. The fruit begins to ripen at 



