86 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



they are put into sweat boxes and are pressed down into a solid mass, 

 where they remain a week or ten days to undergo a sweat. This treat- 

 ment is a very important part of the curing process. The overdried 

 fruit absorbs moisture from the underdried. softens the skin and is a 

 decided benefit to the whole. In this condition the figs go to the packer. 

 In order to kill germs or the eggs of insects that may have been 

 deposited in the figs while exposed under the trees or on the drying 

 trays, some packers expose the fruit to hot steam for a few minutes, 

 while others immerse it in boiling brine, made with three ounces of 

 salt to a gallon of water, for two or three minutes. In curing the figs 

 exhibited here no salt was used. After this heating process the figs are 

 soft and pliable, and are then split open from stem to apex and spread 

 out in layers and pressed into bricks of a pound or half pound in 

 weight, and are then either wrapped in waxed paper, like those before 

 you, and the bricks packed into 25-pound boxes, or are first put into 

 fancy cartons and then packed into boxes of various sizes. 



It may here be mentioned that certain varieties of trees produce figs 

 that may be called self-sealed, the eye being stopped by a drop of 

 hardened syrup or pellucid gum that effectually prevents the entrance 

 of filth beetles and other vermin, and thus assures figs that will not get 

 wormy without the scalding process. Cuttings of this variety will be 

 available from the department distribution mentioned above. 



CONCLUSION. 



While the production of the finest figs requires some attention to 

 details, such as the care of the capri trees and caprification, not neces- 

 sary in growing other fruits, there is nothing in the work not easily 

 mastered by laborers of average intelligence, while the fig tree possesses 

 compensating advantages. The crop is never lost by late spring frosts, 

 the tree requires little pruning, no spraying and no thinning of fruit, 

 which means a saving of labor fully equal to that required in caprifica- 

 tion. The prospective fig grower need not. therefore, be deterred from 

 entering upon the industry for fear of troublesome details, while he ran 

 be assured that when his trees are five or six years old and in suitable 

 soil and climate, they will bring him a gross income of about a hundred 

 dollars per acre at present prices, with a steady increase for a generation 

 to come. (Applause.) 



MR. MARKLET. I want to say, up in Sutter County the Calimyma 

 grows very well and sets heavy crops, but we have not been able to ripen 

 many figs. We have Roeding Nos. 2 and 3. No. 1 never has anything 

 on it to amount to anything. Xo. 3 has a very large profichi crop. What 

 we want is a caprifig that ripens the crop ten davs earlier than Roeding 

 No. 3. 



MR. RIXFORD. It is a question whether we have capri trees that 

 fruit early enough for your purpose. The only way I have seen it done 

 is to plant the capri trees in some very early locality. 



MR. MARKLEY. I want them later. It ripens before the Calimyrna 

 and drops off. 



MR. RIXFORD. You can get caprifigs from the vicinity of Modesto 

 and Turlock and Ripon where the insects do not issue nearly as early as 

 they do at Fresno, and if you want them still later, those grown at 

 Niles — this year they did not issue until the 25th of July. 



