SEED-VESSELS WE EAT 23 1 



purple, and golden — the trees produce. Splendid 

 fruit for eating green or ripe; for preserves, for 

 fattening hogs. But for drying, for taking the 

 place in commerce of the Smyrna fig, practically 

 worthless. Here was the rub. 



Trials without number were made with seeds 

 of this imported fig. Time and again cuttings 

 were brought from Smyrna and planted in Cali- 

 fornia and in the South. Some of them grew 

 and set fruit, but invariably it dropped before 

 maturity. 



Now we shall have to stop, as the fig-growers 

 did, and study the peculiarities of the fig tree, 

 which in many of its ways will surprise us. The 

 scientist came to the rescue of the fruit-growers, 

 and the result is that the best Smyrna figs on the 

 market to-day are home-grown. But the industry 

 was not born until the puzzling problem was solved 

 by experts in the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. This happened in 1899. 



There is a general idea that fig trees do not 

 blossom. Yet the fruit is full of seeds, and seeds 

 follow flowers. You will see little green figs 

 coming out between the leaf-stem and the twig, 

 just where buds appear on other trees in late sum- 

 mer. These fat little buds never open; they just 

 grow until they reach the size of a hen's egg, then 



