TWENTY-FOURTH ANNUAL FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 135 



Imagine my surprise when one of my employes, who was engaged in 

 artificially pollinating Smyrna figs with a glass blowpipe, toward the 

 latter part of June, 1899, brought me a Capri fig which he thought con- 

 tained seeds, but which, on examination, I found were galls. I immedi- 

 ately made an examination of the tented tree and also of another Capri 

 fig adjoining it, and discovered that the two trees had about forty fruits 

 containing insects. The insects had no doubt gone into the figs on the 

 tree adjoining the tented one, having passed through some of the open- 

 ings of the cloth cover. 



The figs under the tented tree came to maturity first, on account of 

 the higher temperature developed, and on examining the figs taken 

 from this tree I could find but very few female insects. All that 

 remained were the males, and these could be found in large numbers 

 inside of each fig. 



On June 29th, six days later than the figs matured under the tented 

 tree, those on the adjoining tree came to maturity, and I picked several 

 of the fruits and took them to the foothill place, but unfortunately 

 •found no figs there. 



To show the wonderful powers of penetration possessed by these 

 insects: The jar containing the insects had been covered with two 

 thicknesses of cheese cloth, but this did not retard them from forcing 

 their way through, and upon arriving at my destination I found a 

 number of the insects crawling around on the outside of the jar. The 

 following day I picked the remainder of the Capri figs, and hung them, 

 two on each end of a string of raffia, in several of my Capri fig trees in 

 another part of my orchard. These trees at that time had a number of 

 figs, none of which were larger than two peas, and on account of the 

 size of the fruits I had grave doubts as to the capability of the insects 

 to enter them. 



On July 19th I made a careful examination of the Capri fig trees in 

 which I had hung the June crop of Capri fruits, and found a number of 

 figs which were of a dark green color and plump and hard when I 

 pressed them between the fingers — an indication that they contained 

 something; the change in the appearance of the fruits in the Capri 

 trees being the same as in the Smyrna figs when artificially pollinated. 



On August 12th the first fig matured on one of the Capri trees 

 referred to above, and on examination I found it contained pulp, a few 

 galls (which upon examination were found to be females), and also 

 seeds. This was a great disappointment to me, and, as I wrote Dr. 

 Howard at the time, I was convinced that if a the figs then develop- 

 ing on the trees should prove to be like the first one, a new and difficult 

 problem had arisen and I feared the insect would be lost. 



Between the 20th and 26th of August ten more Capri figs came to 

 maturity. These were entirely unlike the first one which matured on 

 this tree, having no pulp, and resembled very closely the June crop of 



