34 BULLETIN 732, IT. s. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE SPLITTING OF FIGS. 



In certain seasons a few of the ripening figs split upon the tree. 

 While this is an injury to some extent, it is not a very serious one. 

 There seems to be a difference of opinion as to the cause. Some 

 growers are firmly of the opinion that it is caused by too many 

 Blastophagas, or, in other words, by overpollination; others think 

 that it is due to too much irrigation. The writer, however, is con- 

 vinced that these are not the principal causes, but that the cause is 

 principally climatic. If damp weather, not necessarily rain, occurs 

 during the ripening period, it seems to stimulate the circulation of 

 the sap and gorges the fruit with juice until the pressure is such that 

 the tender skin fails to resist and the fig splits open. If, however, 

 this period of dampness is followed by warm, sunny weather, such 

 figs dry without souring, the split closes up, and they are readily dis- 

 posed of at 2 to 4 cents per pound, which pays for gathering and caring 

 for them. The proportion of figs that split rarely exceeds 25 per 

 cent; nearly always the proportion is much less. 



Trees have been observed standing on the banks of irrigating 

 ditches where the supply of moisture was continuous and showing 

 less split figs than trees in the same orchard that received only 

 occasional irrigation. It appears that when the ground has become 

 too dry and water is then applied a stimulation in the circulation of 

 the sap is caused and is almost invariably followed by more or less 

 splitting, while if the supply of moisture has been continuous few, if 

 any, splits occur. The splitting of oranges and prunes is attributed 

 by many to the same cause. 



FIG BREEDING. 



Fertile seeds can be secured from all kinds of our cultivated figs 

 by caprification and the breeder can readily perpetuate by vegetative 

 propagation desirable hereditary characteristics in his seedling trees. 

 It has been found from experience, however, that about one-half of 

 such seedlings are capri or staminate trees. The process is exceed- 

 ingly simple. A twig is selected with a number of figs from three- 

 eighths to three-quarters of an inch in diameter (the receptive size 

 in most varieties) which have not been entered by the insects. Drop 

 into a paper bag a caprifig with Blastophaga ready to issue and tie 

 it tightly over the twig, and the insects will do the rest. At the end 

 of two or three weeks remove the paper bag and replace it with one 

 of mosquito netting for protection against birds and to prevent the 

 ripe dried fig from falling to the ground. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF VARIETIES. 



For the purposes of this bulletin it is deemed sufficient to describe 

 those Smyrna fig varieties that are promising or have already 

 assumed importance in the fig industry. Of the hundred or more 



