The Kadota Fig 



In presenting this little book on the Kadota Fig to my friends and 

 patrons, I do so with a full recognition that so swiftly are we advancing in all 

 branches of horticulture and disposition of our products, that a writer on the 

 subject may produce something that is hopelessly antiquated almost before it 

 leaves the press. 



It is only the entire absence of anything printed regarding this horticul- 

 tural marvel, developed in late years, that prompts me to put out this regard- 

 ing the Kadota Fig. 



In going back into the history of human progress, I cannot help but be 

 impressed with the equilibrium or co-advancement of human and horticultural 

 achievements. Each stage of human advance witnessed a corresponding ad- 

 vance in the fruits and grains of that age. 



The personality of the human race is reflected in the products of the 

 earth, directly or indirectly as a result of their mental attainments. From 

 earliest humanity to the present, from the Tropics to the Arctics, flora and 

 fauna are co-existent and make co-advancement. 



Is it imaginary on my part to attribute to the fig, the fruit nearest and 

 dearest to mankind since the beginning of time, a kindred nature, reflecting 

 the color and life habit of the race which produced it? Can we not see, 

 away back in the haze and dimness of antiquity, a sympathetic likeness be- 

 tween the earliest man, imperfect and erring, and the fig of that time, a wild, 

 fierce thing, scarcely recognizable at present as the forebear of the joyous 

 fruits we now produce? 



Is not the Smyrna fig, a product of Oriental advancement, an exact re- 

 production of the people who propagated it? Are they not secretive and 

 evasive, utterly depraved on one side of their nature, and human perfection and 

 kindness on the other? Fair of skin, an object of beauty are their females 

 in youth, and fading in early age, yet a race existing for centuries regardless 

 of vicissitudes? Is not the Smyrna fig an exact counterpart of their progress 

 and their lives? A thing of beauty and a joy .unsurpassed is the ripened 

 perfect fruit, yet secretive and a useless, deplorable thing, unless by the im- 

 planting of an outside influence in the form of the wasp, which brings per- 

 fection to the fruit, only as does the winged spirit of Christianity, carrying the 

 pollen of kindness, an invisible leaven, makes more perfect the nature of the 

 race who produced this fruit? Long-lived and tenacious of existence, neither 

 is fit for our association unless by the infusion of outside elements invisible, al- 

 most, but effective. Are not the people and this fruit twin products of their 

 time and age? 



Is not the Adriatic fig also a reflection of the peoples who associate their 

 existence with the fig bearing the name of the region whence they spring? 

 A hardy, mountain people, who have struggled and lived for ages in adver- 

 sity, and who maintain an existence by sheer tenacity of spirit, yet whose im- 

 perfect human productions will liken achievements to this fig which so closely 



