160 



FLORIDA FRUITS. 



successful rooting), a mulch of leaves or grass placed around it, 

 a tall stick or two driven down alongside as a guard, and the 

 work is done. There should be a long dry spell after planting ; 

 then, but not otherwise, the cuttings should be watered. 



Before long buds will develop, and the young tree will 

 grow right along, beginning to bear in its second or third year, 

 and continuing to do so for a lifetime or more. 



The time is not far distant when our people will awake to 

 the true value of the fig, whether sliced, with sugar and cream, 

 as a table fruit, as a preserve, as a sweet pickle, or as a dried or 

 shipping fruit. 



Wherever fresh figs are placed on sale in the Florida cities 

 and towns, they sell readily at from ten to twenty cents a quart, 

 and even if the local price should fall to five cents a quart, 

 there would be still a handsome profit for the grower. 



The experiment of shipping fresh figs from Florida to the 

 Northern markets has already been made, with eminent success. 

 They were sent in refrigerator cars, carefully packed in quart 

 boxes, and having been picked just before maturity, they ripened 

 in transit, and arrived in perfect order, bringing the splendid 

 price of forty cents a quart, when, even at one-fourth of that 

 amount, they would have given a very large profit. 



There is no doubt whatever, that if good, sweet, ripe figs 

 are thus sent to the Northern cities in quantities, they will soon 

 be sought after as a dessert fruit ; they only need to be known 

 to become exceedingly popular, just as they are in Europe. 



The true Smyrna fig, the dried fig of commerce, has not yet 

 been introduced into Florida, although it has been acclimated 

 for some years in California, where it is destined to become a most 

 valuable article of commerce in its dried state, both for consump- 

 tion in the United States, and for export to Europe. The principal 

 varieties of the fig now cultivated in Florida are as follows : 



ANGELIQUE, OR EARLY LEMON. 



Small, greenish yellow ; fine flavored ; early. 



BRUNSWICK, OR MADONNA. 



Very large ; violet ; good, and very productive. 



