126 PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



piles, then sorted into round baskets, and then carried by boys to the 

 fig-packers. The packing of the figs is really done by men entirely; 

 all that the women do is the sorting. In sorting them the bad figs are 

 thrown on one side and the good figs put into the baskets. 



DR. SHERMAN. Do they grade them according to size? 



MR. ROEDING. Yes, sir; according to size. The method of pack- 

 ing the figs is practically the same as we adopt, except that the finest 

 figs are packed in what we call the Lacoon" method. All the finest 

 figs are packed in this manner, and they bring the highest price. I 

 bought some of them and was given a wholesale price on them. I paid 

 in Smyrna 19 cents a pound for them. In New York I found the same 

 fig in one of the wholesale houses, and upon inquiry from the gentle- 

 man in charge I found that he had paid 19 cents a pound for them in 

 Smyrna, but he said the price was too high for this country. 



A MEMBER. Do they dip them at all? 



MR. ROEDING. No, sir; no processing of any kind. There is no 

 sulphuring or dipping at all. All their figs are filled with worms. I 

 asked one man why they didn't kill the worms, and he said that it took 

 too much time. When a ship leaves there with figs it simply crawls 

 with worms. Of course they could destroy the germs of these worms 

 if they would steam the figs or dip them in boiling water. 



A MEMBER. Is there any bleaching or sulphuring of them? 



MR. ROEDING. No, sir. Some figs are put up in boxes and labeled 

 "washed figs," but that statement is not true. The fact is, none of them 

 are washed or processed at all. 



A MEMBER. How do they get the dirt out of them ? 



MR. ROEDING. In handling them; and in order to keep the figs 

 from adhering to their fingers, they are handled with moistened fingers, 

 kept moist by dipping them in a brine. Where they dip this salt water 

 up from the sea and take it to the packing-house, all the sewers empty. 

 I will say that a number of the packing-houses are cleaner than they 

 have been represented to be by some. Some of them are dirty, but the 

 better class of packing-houses are in many instances very nice, and they 

 are kept as clean as they can be in handling that class of goods. 



A MEMBER. Do figs sour there? 



MR. ROEDING. Yes, some; but not so much as our Adriatics. They 

 all sour there if they don't happen to have the north wind, which is a 

 dry wind. If they have a west wind, they sour and spoil as much as 

 ours do. They have smut there, too. I asked one man what caused it, 

 and he said it was because the packers smoked in the buildings. That 

 is not so, however. 



A MEMBER. Can they raise figs cheaper in Smyrna than here? 



MR. ROEDING. Yes, with their cheap labor they probably can. 

 But the good Smyrna figs there bring on the average 2| to 3 cents a 



