THIRTY-FOl'RTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



181 



of which we have any record, for the date orchards that Avere the 

 adiiiiration of Herodotus at Pahiiyra and Babylon perished ages ago. 



These few examples suffice to show that in beginning the practice of 

 oapritication the fruit growers of California are reviving an operation 

 older than the recorded history of mankind. 



HISTORY OF CAPRIFICATION IN CALIFORNIA. 



As noted above, it was not until the culture of Smyrna figs was 

 attempted in California as a result of ]Mr. G. P. Rixford's introduction 

 i)f cuttings in 1880 and 1882, that it was realized that something was 

 lacking, and not until Mr. Geo. C. Roeding, in 1890, and Dr. Gustav 

 Eisen and Mr. E. W. Maslin. in 1891,* first artificially pollinated 

 Smyrna figs that it was proved that caprification was absolutely neces- 

 sary with this type of figs. This new Californian point of view was 

 first published in convincing form by Dr. Gustav Eisen in a bulletin 

 of the California Academy of Sciences issued January 11, 1896, f which 

 attracted wide attention both in this country and in Europe. It should 

 he noted that after the elaborate investigations of Gasparrini made at 

 Naples from 1845 to 1865, which resulted in his denying the efficacy 

 of caprification, botanists and educated men generally the world over 

 liad come to consider caprification to be merely a peasant's superstition 

 analogous to the hanging of horseshoes in favorite fruit trees to make 

 them fertile. 



The result of Eisen 's memoir was to change all this and convince 

 the scientific world that caprification was after all no idle folly, but a 

 vitally necessary operation in the culture of drying figs of the Smyrna 

 type. As I shall show later on, the successful introduction of the 

 BJastophaga into California was brought about largely through Dr. 

 Eisen 's memoir. 



INTRODUCTION OF BLASTOPHAGA INTO CALIFORNIA. 



The first introduction of the Blastophaga was made by H. E. Van 

 Deman, then Pomologist of the Department of Agriculture, who, in 

 the spring of 1890, imported capri fig cuttings from Asia Minor, some 

 of Avhich had fruits attached from which issued the first fig insects 

 ever seen in the New World. Some of these cuttings, and doubtless 

 some of the Blastophagas, were sent to California. 



The second introduction was made in the spring, and the third in 



*Dr. Gustav Eisen informs me, since this lecture was delivered, that as early as 

 1874 his attention was called to the necessity for caprification for figs of the Smyrna 

 type hy Dr. John Bleasdale, a Catholic priest, who had been educated in Portugal, 

 and who was familiar with caprification. Becoming convinced of the need of capri- 

 fication. Dr. Eisen read a paper before the Fruit-Growers' Convention as early as 

 November, 1885, describing the operation. His views led him into a controversial cor- 

 respondence with Dr. H. H. Behr of the California Academy of Sciences during the 

 years 1881 to 1885. The artificial pollination of Smyrna figs was discussed as a 

 means of proving the necessity for caprification, then strenuously denied by Behr and 

 man3' others, including Mr. E. W^. Maslin. 



Dr. Eisen "had no opportunity of trying direct pollination (from want of capri fig 

 pollen) until 1891, in the last days of July." At his request, Mr. E. W. Maslin 

 accompanied him to the orchard of James Shinn at Niles, California, where pollen 

 from a "Bulletin" capri fig tree (introduced in 1880 or 1882 by Mr. G. P. Rixford) 

 was transferred to young Smyrna figs, causing them to "come to perfection as large, 

 ripe and luscious figs, in every way perfectly developed, with numerous perfect seeds." 

 The experiments of Dr. Eisen at Niles were, therefore, the outcome of discussions 

 toegxm many years before. 



fEisen. Gustav. Biological Studies on Figs. Capri Figs and Caprification, in Bull. 

 Cal. Acad. Sci. (2) 5:897-1003, Jan. 11, 1896. 



