TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWEES' CONVENTION. 



209 



market justifying this price. Calimyrna figs sold at 6 cents per pound 

 delivered in the sweat-box. I do not wish to infer that they will always 

 bring this price. They will, however, always have a value in the com- 

 mercial world, based on the law of supply and demand, with many 

 factors in their favor. Deliveries can be made a month earlier; and 

 our goods will be put up with more care, will be cleaner, and last but 

 not least, they will be packed in attractive packages, all of which will 

 tend to give them the lead. 



It must be apparent to the most cursory observer that the success 

 which California has attained in fruit-growing is directly attributable 

 to the fact of her taking the best of certain fruits grown in the Old 

 World, and under our more favorable climatic conditions and improved 

 methods of handling and packing, creating a demand which has become 

 permanent. 



Individual success in growing figs, or any other variety of fruit, can 

 only be accomplished by starting with the right variety. How much 

 better it would have been for the citrus business of California if the 

 Australian Navel had never been introduced and mixed with the 

 genuine Washington Navel. There is hardly an old established orchard 

 which has not more or less mixtures in it. These oranges naturally drift 

 into the market, and their inferiority detracts from the value of the 

 true Navel, causing annoyance and loss to packer and grower alike. 



The same state of affairs is liable to arise in the growing of figs, 

 unless growers exercise proper precautions. It is an unfortunate fact 

 that the earlier importations of Smyrna fig cuttings into California 

 have been found to be badly mixed. No less than four varieties have 

 been found growing on the Vina Ranch alone. All of this would indi- 

 cate that the cuttings sent from Smyrna were most likely taken from a 

 fig garden (the name applied to all fig orchards in Asia Minor) started 

 from seed, otherwise there could not have been so many varieties among 

 the trees still to be found growing in California. In my travels through 

 the fig districts of Asia Minor, I took particular pains to inspect a num- 

 ber of orchards, and it was only in rare instances that I found any 

 variety outside of the Lop Injir, which is identical with the variety 

 which has been designated as the "Calimyrna" in California. Occa- 

 sionally a Kassaba was found growing among the Lop Injir figs, but 

 very few of any other varieties, with which I was familiar, were to be 

 seen. 



That the Smyrna fig will not come true from seed is exemplified by 

 the old orchard of seedlings at Loomis, Placer County, planted by Mr. 

 E. W. Maslin in 1885, from seeds taken from the finest of Smyrna figs 

 which could be purchased in the New York market. After Mr. Maslin 

 sold his place the orchard was neglected, and for fifteen years it received 

 no care; still the trees lived, many of them making a good growth. It 

 14 — F-GC 



