SMYRNA VARIETIES 



49 



trates the great lack of knowledge of fig culture, 

 not only by the reading public but by writers as 

 well, for we cannot believe responsible contrib- 

 utors wilfully misstate facts. One bushel a tree is 

 a good crop ; two bushels is extraordinary, and. 

 when picked for preserving, weigh from forty to 

 forty-eight pounds — not seventy-five. It would re- 

 quire quite an extended statement to correct the 

 errors in this quotation alone. 



There has never been a successful effort to ac- 

 climate the Smyrna fig in the South ; it is now be- 

 ing attempted in Louisiana for the first time. Sev- 

 eral small shipments of nursery stock have been 

 made to Georgia. Florida and Texas; and many 

 trees locally believed to be of that variety are not 

 so. No caprification has been successful, and it is 

 doubted if the blastopha^cT could survive our sud- 

 den changes of winter weather without being 

 housed in very expensive quarters. It is not ques- 

 tioned that Smyrna fis's. of as good size and quality 

 as are grown elsewhere, can be raised in the South, 

 but until some enthusiast with adequate capital 

 undertakes the work in a systematic way. following 

 recent experiments at other -places, the matter will 

 remain problematical. The Smyrna fig is most val- 

 uable when dried, and has a ready market, but the 

 Gulf country is too humid for open air curing, and 

 it would add so large an item of cost to process the 

 fruit in evai:>orators that successful competition 

 with California and foreign products would be con- 



