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



MR. RIXFORD. With Mr. Maslin's permission I would like to make 

 a correction. It was in 1883. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. Mr. Kohler of Selma has been asked to 

 speak on curing figs. 



MR. KOHLER. I am in a peculiar position. I am a good deal like 

 this gentleman that has just spoken. I did not know much about it and 

 have been trying to learn, and when I run across such men as Mr. Rix- 

 ford I find that I have learned a whole lot that is wrong and I don't 

 know what is correct. But I raised a few of the figs this year, and after 

 I put them in the sweat box my wife was looking over some one day and 

 she found a number that were sealed up. I saw the one that Mr. Rixford 

 had last year ; and the wax had come out and seemed to drop over, but 

 this was sealed up and looked transparent. I forgot to send them to 

 him and I don't know what trees they came off of. but another year I 

 will observe closer and watch for those trees. I cured some, and I believe 

 in the pure sunshine and no dope on them. When they drop off they 

 get a little dirt and I wash them in cold water with a very little salt. 

 I imagine that the salt gave them a bright, glazy color, and then to get 

 them in the proper condition I put them in the oven, and the oven I had 

 125 degrees hot, and kept them in there four or five minutes and parked 

 them. They told me my method was impracticable and I told them it 

 was not, because I could fix an oven and a dryer just as easy as they had 

 it on a carrier going through hot liquid. There was a Swiss-Italian that 

 gave me this idea, and he told me that if there was anything that he 

 understood thoroughly it was figs and oranges, and he told me that the 

 figs that they packed in New York they used a sort of an acid and they 

 had an acid taste to them, but Mr. Rixford tells me the good figs are not 

 thus packed, so he must have been wrong. I have been buying caprifig 

 trees for three or four years, and I have got all kinds of trees. I don't 

 know what they are going to bear, but I have got all kinds of shapes 

 and all kinds of trees. It is something I don't know much about. 

 (Applause.) 



MR. RIXFORD. There is about one fig in fifty, generally, that is 

 self -sealed. 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. Mr. Elmore Chase will speak on our 

 trade in Smyrna figs. 



MR. CHASE. The undried figs. I have not done any very big busi- 

 ness in that matter; I am just starting in the business. Mr. Rixford 

 has helped me considerably. I bought, something like ten years ago, 

 twenty-five figs from Mr. Roeding, and he sent me two caprifig trees 

 and one of them has borne figs, but I don't get any blastophaga. and 

 this year the caprifig tree has raised a large number of mamme. but 

 they all dropped. I received a large number of the profichi figs from 

 Loomis. We hung them up in our trees and even had a very good crop 

 this year, but the later ones did not fertilize. By the way. my figs have 

 been fertilized for four or five years, and I don't know how they were 

 fertilized. I have had a fair crop for several years without the insect. 

 I wrote to Mr. Roeding about that. He said, "Send me some figs." I 

 sent him some and he said, "You are fortunate. The bugs are about 

 you somewhere." I took the figs, some two or three hundred pounds, 

 this year from a few trees. We made a weak brine, dipped them in 



