36 



CROPS THAT PAY. 



and in many places the waste figs form an important item of their 

 midsummer diet. In fact no cheaper food can be grown for them. 

 This, at least, is valuable evidence of the cheapness of fig production , 

 and the pigs and chickens are surely no worse because they are tona 

 of such delicacies. But the foreign fig growers can teach the -aouth- 

 ern orchardist. for here is what is done with the refuse of the hg 

 market in Mediterranean countries: "All inferior fruit from places 

 where first class figs cannot be produced, finds its way to the Aus- 

 trian 'chicory coffee' makers, or to the French distilleries, in which 

 latter places figs are converted into fine champagne, wine, cognac 

 and vinegar. The liquor known as annisette is made in Spain from 

 figs, also the ardent spirit aguardiente." It is even rumored that a 

 certain brand of Vienna coffee, famous for its fine flavor, owes its 

 reputation entirely to an admixture of roasted figs. Here is a sug- 



BY PERMISSION TEXAS 



FIGS IN BOXES 



AG'L EXPERIMENT STA. 



gestion for some wideawake coffee concern — fig coffee ! But this is 

 a matter for industrial enterprise rather than for the fig grower. 



French and English gardeners, with much care, and no little cost 

 to over-winter their trees, have long been able to supply the markets 

 of Paris and London with fresh figs at good profit. Should our 

 gardeners near large cities go in for fig culture, they would at 

 first find but small demand for the fresh product. Few Northern 

 people know any other figs than dried figs. Of these we import 

 yearly 11,000,000 pounds besides consuming as many pounds more 



