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greatest number seem to have dropped their fruit in every place but two. 

 Sir. Rixford told me there was one tree in Vaca Valley that resembled 

 this, and bore its fruit year before last, but I believe this last year its fruit 

 dropped. My trees began to bear the second year after planting, bore a full 

 crop, though it was a small tree, and has also borne an immense crop this 

 year, and never has dropped its fruit. It has this peculiarity, the fruit 

 never sours on the tree nor in the drying process, so far as my observation 

 goes. It is a greenish color in its early stages, but when it begins to get 

 ripe it turns to a yellowish amber, white and yellow, you might say, droop- 

 ing upon the stem, and yet the fig will remain and cure hanging upon the 

 tree without souring. You cannot say that of the White Adriatic, though it 

 is a splendid fig, properly handled, nor any other fig known to our public. 



Another pronounced difference between this and the other trees is its 

 wonderfully vigorous growth. These trees were planted three years ago 

 last spring, then about three feet high, a little larger than my finger and 

 without branches. To-day they stand fourteen feet high and the circum- 

 ference, say a foot above the ground, of one of them is twenty-two and one 

 half inches and the other eighteen or nineteen inches — showing that they 

 are the most wonderful growers of the fig family, healthy and robust in 

 appearance and beautiful in foliage. 



SAMPLES OF FIGS EXHIBITED. 



I am supplied here to-day with Mr. Denicke's far-famed fig. I am not 

 here to say a word against the White Adriatic. It is one of the finest figs 

 we have in this State, and one which will have a commercial value in the 

 future as a fruit fig, but to say it is identical with the figs of the " Bulletin " 

 importation is a stretch of the imagination, to say the least. His sample 

 has been processed, while mine is sun-dried, without any treatment what- 

 ever. I wish to submit them to a committee to examine, not asking you 

 to take my word for it. 



About the time the discussion came up I cut a branch off my tree and 

 sent it down to San Francisco to Mr. Rixford, and the same day he pro- 

 cured the genuine White Adriatic fig, and had them photographed. The 

 photographs are before you. Those on the left are from my tree, from the 

 il Bulletin's" imported cutting; the other from the White Adriatic. The 

 White Adriatic is an elongated fig, the skin very much thicker than the, 

 "Bulletin's" Smyrna, which is of much rounder form. The other photo- 

 graph shows the interior appearance of the two figs. My fig, which was 

 cut open for photographing, was taken off the tree about ten days ago, and 

 was, therefore, grown in the cold, damp weather of our fall, and the skin 

 is thicker, and the seeds further apart, and the center open; while the fig 

 in the best state is firm, and jelly-like in the center, seeds very small, and 

 no openings such as you see in the photograph. 



POINTS OF INTEREST CONCERNING THE SMYRNA FIG. 



Since the publication of the character of my fig in the " Bulletin," I 

 have been overwhelmed with inquiries and applications for fruit and leaves 

 for comparison. I have been obliged to refuse, because it would have defo- 

 liated my trees to accommodate the applicants. I have also been besought 

 for cuttings, but I did not come before this convention to peddle figs. I 

 am glad, however, that so wide interest has been awakened, and that there 

 is such general disposition to secure the best possible varieties of fruit for 

 California. I believe that we have in this fruit a bonanza for California, 



