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From the beginning of the work, the United States Department of 
Agriculture had been thoroughly alive to the importance of the pos- 
Sible practical outcome. The importation of the caprifig cuttings men- 
tioned above, in 1889-90, was done after consultation between Prof. 
H. E. Van Deman, then pomologist, and Prof. C. V. Riley, then ento- 
mologist, of the Department, for the purpose of establishing the proper 
host plants in the best possible condition in order that the subsequent 
importation of the Blastophaga by the Division of Entomology would 
have a reasonable chance of success. (See Annual Report Secretary 
of Agriculture, 1890, page 414.) 
During the winter of 1897-98 the writer, after extensive correspond- 
ence with the board of trade of San Francisco, with Dr. Hisen, Mr. 
Roeding, and Mr. Maslin, decided that the time had come to make a 
serious and well-organized attempt to bring about the desired result. 
He, therefore, laid the matter before the Secretary of Agriculture and 
was authorized to undertake the work. He had first thought of having 
Dr. Eisen, so well qualified by virtue not only of his scientific attain- 
ments but also on account of his especial interest in this subject and 
his well-known investigations and conclusions, commissioned to visit 
Mediterranean regions for the purpose of collecting additional varieties 
of caprifigs, of sending over ripe gall figs, and of bringing to this coun- 
try, if necessary, an entire transplanted and healthy caprifig tree. 
But it happened that about this time Mr. Walter T. Swingle, a well- 
known botanist in the employ of the Department, was in south Europe, 
at his own expense, studying at the International Zoologica! Station at 
Naples. It happened also that Mr. Swingle was greatly interested in 
the study of the caprifig and in the caprification by Blastophaga. It 
was decided, therefore, to save the expense of sending a man from 
America by asking the assistance of Mr. Swingle. The latter, at some 
personal expense, began in the spring of 1898 to send a number of capri- 
figs containing gall insects to the Department in Washington for ship- 
ment to California, and made a careful study of the question of the 
different varieties of caprifigs. In April of that year the writer, under 
commission from the Secretary of Agriculture, visited Mexico on an 
investigating trip and came northward through California, visiting all 
of the localities to which caprifig cuttings had been sent by the pomolo- 
gist in 1890. On reaching Fresno he was at once greatly impressed by 
the conditions existing at Mr. Roeding’s place, and with the energy, 
intelligence, ability, and general interest in the subject shown by Mr. 
George C. Roeding himself. Figs growing there, although only six 
years old, impressed the Kastern visitor with a belief that they could not 
be less than twenty years old, so extraordinary had been their growth. 
They were large, healthy, and luxuriant trees. Right through the cen- 
ter of the Smyrna-fig orchard ran a long row of caprifigs, the branches 
of the two varieties almost interlocking. Moreover, Mr. Roeding had 
planted in the foothills of the mountains, some miles away, other capri- 
