THE KADOTA FIG 



away and instantly see the difference and recognize the very row of trees 

 where the two varieties meet. A nursery is now growing from cuttings taken 

 from that orchard, and the Japanese who will sell the rootings will sell 

 "Kadotas" next planting season. He neither knows of nor cares anything for 

 the Taft variety, but the demand will sell his "50-50" stock and many or- 

 chardists may hereafter have years of regrets. 



So few are the years since the advent of this fig, and so few are the 

 genuine nurseries, that any planter may easily prove the origin of his root- 

 ings. A law protects a planter in this state against the purchase of stock 

 afterwards proving to be not true to name. But that joke causes a nursery- 

 man, within seven years, to refund to the planter the purchase price of his 

 rootings. Wouldn't that make you smile? After seven years you find you 

 were buncoed, and then get back the 25 cents per tree you perhaps paid for 

 the false rooting! 



Planting, Cultivating and Irrigation Soils 



Kadota figs are now growing in all soils and beside every other variety 

 of fig grown in California, and while some soils are most assuredly superior 

 to others for the production of figs, this fig has demonstrated that nothing 

 special in soils or treatment is required to make it out-grow and out-bear in 

 tonnage any other fig with which it may associate. 



All figs should avoid pure sandy soil; select something heavier and use 

 sandy soils for something else. My home orchard is planted in heavy adobe 

 and dry-bog. Loams are, in my judgment, most superior for growing figs, and 

 soils under-laid with hard-pan which may be blasted may, in the long run, prove 

 still better than loams. The breaking up of hard-pan liberates the elements 

 so essential for the production of a superior quality of fruit. 



Lime is pre-eminently a requisite for heavy, meaty, rich figs, and all 

 hard-pans are heavily impregnated with lime, and more or less so with potash, 

 sulphur and iron, all of which go to make a soil favorable for fig production. 

 A deficiency of lime in any soil will, cause a fruit to be produced that dries 

 into a hollow shell of seeds and little meat. We have all seen that kind of 

 dried fruit. 



Air and water will cause hard-pan to disintegrate, thus liberating these 

 above named values. The tree itself may flourish in any soil deficient in lime, 

 potash, sulphur and iron, yet the product of the tree will be poor. Again, 

 hard-pan land when blasted conserves moisture below the pan, as summer 

 heat cannot evaporate the moistures invariably found beneath, and the tree 

 will eventually push its roots downward and laterally, thus securing required 

 moisture at all seasons. 



Planting 



Regardless of the price of powder, blasting of locations for fig tree plant- 

 ing should invariably be practiced. First, a deeper, bigger, better hole is 

 thus secured; filling the hole with aerated soil from the surface insures strong, 

 vigorous growth for three years on the part of the newly planted tree. Second- 

 ly, the hole acts as a reservoir for the irrigation or rain which should follow 

 the planting, and the cracks caused by the blast radiating laterally in all di- 



