30 



FIG CULTURE 



tained an assistant in the Meander Valley for the 

 further study of the habits of the tree, and from 

 him received cuttings of several varieties. In 

 1885 Mr. Eixford imported a large quantity of cut- 

 tings, which were distributed among the rural sub- 

 scribers to the San Francisco Bulletin, Governor 

 Leland Stanford financing these importations. John 

 Rock obtained more cuttings in 1891 which he plant- 

 ed at Niles. From these numerous large Smyrna 

 fig trees grew in widely scattered localities, but the 

 fruit invariably fell off before maturing. Although 

 the trees were tried in various soils, altitudes and 

 temperatures, no ripe fruit was obtainable. By 

 the combined efforts of missionaries in the Meander 

 Valley and the pomologists sent there by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, together with 

 experiments conducted by Californians at home 

 and in Smyrna, it was discovered that these varie- 

 ties required trees in each orchard which contained 

 flowers of both sexes, as well as gall flowers, and also 

 needed a waspish Asiatic pollenating insect, called 

 blastophaga grossorum, to fertilize each green fig, in 

 order to grow; otherwise the fruit dropped. Even 

 after these discoveries Californians spent fifteen 

 years in learning to import the insects without their 

 deterioration while traveling, in providing a home 

 within which they would lay eggs that would hatch, 

 and in acclimating them. 



The intricate problem of caprification concerns 

 Smyrna figs alone. There are more than thirty va- 



