SMYRNA FIG CULTURE. 21 



CAPRIFIG PLANTATIONS. 



As the caprifig crop occasionally suffers from frost in the flat 

 regions of the great valley, it is suggested that the fig growers of a 

 locality combine and plant a caprifig orchard of a few acres in some 

 frost-free foothill region. In this way the cooperators would insure 

 themselves a steady supply of caprifigs at little cost. 



All Smyrna fig growers appreciate the fact that there would be con- 

 siderable advantage if caprifigs containing the insect could be had 

 for a period of a month or six weeks, thereby insuring the pollinizing 

 of more figs and an increase in the crops. With our present varieties 

 of caprifig trees the caprifying season covers a period of only about 

 three weeks. The only way by which this period can be extended with 

 capri varieties now cultivated seems to be by planting the capri trees 

 in cool localities where the proximity of the sea or other influences 

 retard the ripening of the figs and the development of the Blastophaga. 

 In such localities as Loomis, Fresno, Indio, and Mecca, Cal., and 

 Phoenix, Ariz., the insects from the profichi crop begin to issue from 

 about the 10th to the 20th of June, while in localities within the influ- 

 ence of the ocean breezes, such as the cooler portions of Sacramento and 

 San Joaquin Counties, the period of issue is a week or ten days later, 

 and at Niles, Alameda County, Cal., on the eastern shore of San 

 Francisco Bay, the time of issue is as late as July 25 or the begin- 

 ning of August. A cooperative caprifig orchard could be so located 

 as to supply the Smyrna fig growers with pollinizing material for the 

 latest figs that could ripen before the advent of the fall rains. 1 



THE SEEDLING FIG ORCHARD AT LOOMIS, CAL. 



Back in 1886, while a spirited discussion regarding the necessities of 

 caprification was going on in California, E. W. Maslin, then of Loomis, 

 Cal., sent to H. K. Thurber, a leading importing merchant of New 

 York City, for a box of the finest imported Smyrna figs. The seeds 

 of these figs were planted by the gardener at the State Capitol, Sac- 

 ramento. The resulting seedlings were planted by Mr. Maslin on his 

 ranch at Loomis in 1887. These trees grew thriftily and in the 

 course of three or four years began to set fruit, nearly all of which 

 failed to mature for lack of pollination, the fertilizing insect, Blas- 

 tophaga, not then having been introduced into that part of the State. 



The Blastophaga were first colonized on George C. Roeding's trees 

 at Fresno, and in the following year, 1901, they were established in 

 the Maslin orchard, at Loomis, where the trees matured fruit for the 

 first time. The fruiting of the trees demonstrated that about half of 

 them were caprifigs and the other half of the female or edible type. 

 This result was naturally to be expected, as the Smyrna fig is the 

 female form of a dioecious species. 



1 This would be a desirable undertaking for an association of fig growers, such as was formed at the Fig 

 Institute at Fresno, Cal., January 4 and 5, 1918. 



