PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 87 



MR. MARKLEY. The climate of Niles is so different. 



MR. RIXFORD. Still, the insect flourishes there. 



MR. MARKLEY. If I took a Niles tree to Sacramento Valley it 

 would change its habits. 



MR. RIXFORD. We are giving a good deal of attention to that 

 matter of varieties and trying to select a list of caprifigs that will give 

 a succession. We now have a list that will give a succession for three or 

 four weeks. The Smyrna fig continues to push its crop for four to six 

 weeks. Of course, the latest ones, if they are caprified, perhaps would 

 be too late to escape the fall rains, but the crop can be very greatly 

 increased by having the caprifigs at various times. The men best posted, 

 in sending to me. say. send 50, four or five days apart. The reason is, 

 to-day there may be a certain number of Smyrna figs in a receptive 

 condition. A week later there will be another lot, but in the mean time 

 the first caprifigs have dried up and the insects are dead, and that is 

 the reason why a succession of the caprifigs is important. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. I am going to take the liberty of calling 

 on four old members of this convention before noon. I am going to ask 

 Mr. E. W. Maslin to speak five minutes on seedling fig orchards. 



MR. MASLIN. Mr. President, anel Laelies and Gentlemen: I am 

 suffering from a very severe cold. I have very little of importance to 

 tell you or to add anything to the knowledge of how to grow a Smyrna 

 fig. I suppose my worthy Commissioner simply wants me to tell you 

 how I grew the Smyrna fig and what induced me to do so. I have about 

 twenty or thirty varieties of figs in my orchard at Loomis, and con- 

 ceiving the idea that I could grow a Smyrna fig, of which there were 

 none at that time. I knew, in the State, I wrote to Mr. Thurber of New 

 York and asked him to send me a box of Smyrna figs. He sent me the 

 Imperial figs, which I put out in 1886. I formed a nursery and put out 

 fifty-three trees in the vineyard orchard and about 15 acres in the flats. 

 The flats were destroyed ; I destroyed them myself. Every tree, nearly, 

 had a different variety of fig and leaf. One year I raised one tree of a 

 purple fig which ripened. My notes seem to state what was not true, 

 that I planted the south part of it with figs from San Francisco. Those 

 were planted with the best figs I could buy in New York, for which I 

 paid 30 cents a pound. These figs were grown without irrigation ; I had 

 not the facilities for irrigation. Some time in 1900. I went out to Mr. 

 Shaw's place. At that time I did not believe in caprifieation. Gustav 

 Eisen insisted all the time that I could never raise figs without the wasp. 

 One day we went out to Niles and found two or three caprifigs. They 

 had plenty of pollen. We took the pollen out in my hand with a tooth- 

 pick and put it into one of the figs imported by Mr. Rixford. We raised 

 fifty figs. Mr. Shaw then wrote to Smyrna and got out a lot of Smyrna 

 figs. I put them in the orchard in little boxes. Not being an entomolo- 

 gist I did not know how to take care of them. Mr. Eisen, from Lower 

 California, sent me half a dozen boxes of the blastophaga. I put them 

 in the trees and I think either from the California or the Mexican or 

 the Smyrna came the blastophaga in that orchard. I was so unfortunate 

 later as to have to surrender my ranch to Mr. Gage. It was due to Mr. 

 Swingle and Mr. Rixford to recognize the value of the orchard. So far 

 as I am concerned, my effort was to grow the Smyrna fig through the 

 blastophaga and the seedling. I was a sort of a pioneer without much 

 knowledge of the question. (Applause.) 



