206 



TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



with languished, and the figs were allowed to drop to the ground and go 

 to waste, or were fed to the hogs, and they not only relished them keenly, 

 but fattened on them as well. 



Meanwhile, F. Roeding, having concluded that there was a future for 

 the industry, decided to send one of his foremen to Smyrna, for the 

 purpose of investigating the subject of Smyrna fig culture on the spot, 

 and also to secure cuttings of the variety from which the finest dried 

 figs were exported. 



The successful solution of the problem, in connection with the pro- 

 duction of the Smyrna fig in California, is a subject familiar to all of 

 our horticulturists, so it will not be necessary to recapitulate the facts, 

 which have so often been presented. 



It was not until 1892, when Seropian Bros., of Fresno, started to pack 

 the Adriatic figs, in a small but commercial way, their output in the 

 first year being in the neighborhood of 10,000 ten-pound boxes, that the 

 industry in California first received commercial notice. The price of 4 

 cents per pound had the immediate effect of stimulating more planting, 

 and also caused many growers to give better care and attention to their 

 trees than they had done before. The inferiority of the Adriatic figs 

 was a matter of comment among Eastern jobbers, but nevertheless there 

 was a demand for a cheap fig to fill in the gap before the Smyrna figs 

 were received, and as the Adriatic figs were retailed at a much lower 

 figure, a regular trade for them has been established. In 1896, the 

 output by this one firm alone was in the neighborhood of 60,000 ten- 

 pound boxes. The method of packing the figs in layers had been 

 followed up to this time, in imitation of the Smyrna pack, although the 

 character of the work was far inferior. In the same season a novel 

 idea was adopted by a member of this firm. Wooden forms were made, 

 divided into four or five compartments, each form, when filled with figs, 

 holding a pound of fruit. These bricks, as they are known to the trade, 

 were then wrapped in waxed paper, and afterward tied with ribbon, and 

 then packed ten in a box. The trade evidently appreciated this style 

 of package, for, within a few years, it practically superseded the old 

 layer style. A dealer knew what he was selling to the customer, and 

 was relieved of the necessity of weighing the figs and getting his fingers 

 sticky at the same time. 



In the natural course of events, other packers engaged in the fig busi- 

 ness, and in the year 1897 the combined pack of the four firms in Fresno 

 alone was not far from 1,200 tons, or 240,000 ten-pound boxes. The 

 year 1898 was the banner year for the Adriatic fig, the Smyrna fig crop 

 having been seriously curtailed by a tremendous freeze in the fig district 

 of Smyrna, which not only injured the trees, but destroyed the Capri- 

 fig as well, so that the crop was two-thirds short. The demand for the 

 Adriatic figs on this account was unprecedented. Fully 2,000 tons were 



