180 



THIRTY-FOURTH FRUIT-GROWERS^ CONVENTION. 



ANCIENT HISTORY OF CAPRIFICATION. 



The operation of caprification dates back to remote antiquity. 

 Already in the time of Herodotus, in the fifth century B. C, caprifica- 

 tion Avas so well known as to be used as a self-evident example in 

 explaining- (falsely, as it happened in this casej the artificial pollina- 

 tion of the date palm as practiced in ancient Babylon. 



Aristotle, in a little-known chapter of his History of Animals (Bk. 5, 

 Ch. 26), written about 340 B. C, gives a short account of the process 

 that could scarcely be imprpved to-day. He said : 



The fruits of the capri fig contain small animals called pseucs. These are at 

 first small grubs, and when their envelopes are broken, psenes, which fly. come out; 

 they then enter the fruits of the fig tree and the punctures they make there prevent 

 these fruits from falling before they are ripe. So the countrymen take the trouble 

 to put branches of the capri fig in the ordinary tig trees, and also plant capri figs 

 near the common fig trees. 



Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle, gave a still fuller account of the 

 operation, and was the first writer to mention that some sort of figs, 

 set fruit without being caprified. All of the later Greek and Latin 

 Avriters on natural history refer to caprification as a well-known horti- 

 cultural process. 



Recent studies of Solomon Reinach, the celebrated Oriental scholar,, 

 go to show that caprification Avas very well known in the earliest Greek 

 times before written history began. His researches led him to think 

 that in the earliest times there was a sacred mystery play — a cult of 

 the fig tree and of caprification analogous to the Eleusinean mystery 

 play, in w^hich the wheat head played the principal role. He thinks 

 that the w^ord SA^cophant. still a part of all modern languages, originated 

 in these rites, and was, indeed, applied to the priest who at the critical 

 moment during the ceremonies showed the fig branch (s2/co=fig, 

 phanein=to s'ho^\) just as the analogous priest, the hierophant, in the 

 rites of Demeter, show^ed the w^heat head. The cult of the fig he 

 supposes to have degenerated in early times so that the sycophant, once 

 respected and feared, came to be a cheap charlatan hence, the modern 

 significance of the w^ord. If Reinach's views are correct, the cult of 

 the fig must have been of great antiquity, for it to have become degen- 

 erated and almost forgotten before the classic Greek period. 



Again, in ancient Rome, there are traces of important ceremonies 

 that date back to the semi-mythical times of Romulus and Remus 

 wherein capri fig branches w-ere in a midsummer festival (about the 

 time caprification would be practiced in that latitude). Now caprifica- 

 tion is unknow^n in central Italy, and has doubtless been forgotten for 

 many centuries about Rome,* yet at the very dawn of history Ave find 

 signs that caprification was once practiced there. 



Strabo, the great Greek geographer, attended school when a lad some 

 2,000 years ago near the present town of Aidin, the center of the 

 Smyrna fig industry. Now, Strabo reports that in his day the figs of 

 that region w-ere highly esteemed and brought the highest price in the 

 markets. This record goes to show that fig culture has been the princi- 

 X^al industry in this region for two millennia, the oldest fruit industry 



*The great naturalist, Plinj', did not have any personal knowledge of caprification. 



