THE KADOTA FIG 19 



So the next season, 1916, in August, I tried the Eastern shipment plan; it 

 worked beautifully and I received $2.30 per box for my first consignment; 

 that was an 8-pound box (net). My prices ranged from $1.75 to $2.50 per 

 box that season and but few were lost. 



My dried figs that season sold at the regular Adriatic prices then prevail- 

 ing. 



In 1917, I was shipping East also, but the Pacific Coast Syrup Company 

 of San Francisco had corttracted to take all my smaller figs at 6 1 /? cents f. o. b. 

 and furnished boxes and transportation. 



In 1918, we again contracted with the canners, with prices on the June 

 crop at 6J/2 for firm fruit and 4 cents for seconds, and the crops following 

 July 1st brought 8 cents per pound, or $160.00 per ton. 



Our 1919 contracts called for 8 cents per pound for all figs, big and little, 

 up to and including July 1 st, and all figs delivered thereafter bringing 9 cents 

 per pound, which means almost one cent per fig, or $180.00 per ton for our 

 fresh fruit. Opening prices, 1 920, are 1 cents for perfect fruit. 



Because of the lack of tonnage of dry Kadotas, no special featuring of 

 them has been possible, to command a special price, because of the fact that 

 they never sour, split or mold; hence we receive regular Adriatic prices for 

 such tonnage as we offer for sale. 



Drying 



The Kadota fig will dry and fall from the tree exactly as do any of the 

 other varieties. They are not a good dried article until the tree is 4 or 5 years 

 of age, and full sugar, flavor and sizes are attained by the fruit. 



The August and September crop may be caprified exactly as is the 

 Smyrna, and a heavier, sweeter, full-meated fig, filled with big, plump, fertile 

 seeds, is the result. 



A caprified Kadota when ripening fails to take on the beautiful golden 

 color of the uncaprified fruit and remains until drying a decided green shade, 

 which fades away as drying progresses, leaving a very white, attractive and 

 delicious dried fig. 



The University of California has furnished us with an analysis of our 

 caprified product and we have been enabled to compare these results with 

 the analysis of imported Smyrnas, finding from 3 to 1 2 per cent more sugar 

 in the California raised Kadota than is found in the imported Smyrna. 



If Kadotas chance to be raised in remote locations and drying is desired 

 instead of fresh-shipping, the grower has it coming and going over planters 

 growing either Adriatic or Smyrnas, inasmuch as he raises a June crop which 

 he may dry and which the other white varieties do not produce, and while he 

 cannot caprify that crop, he may fertilize the August and September crops 

 and thereafter until November 1 5 continue to gather and dry additional 

 tonnage from his Kadotas at a season when the Smyrna and Adriatic have 

 ceared to produce. 



In drying our figs by the present time-worn methods, we all over-dry 

 them, making tough, leathery fruit, neither attractive nor palatable, as com- 

 pared to what we could produce if we were to advance our methods in fig 

 production, as we have in all other commodities. I long for the day to come 

 when the dry-fig producers will achieve those commendable results. 



