4 BULLETIN 132, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
THE SPLITTING OF FIGS. 
In certain seasons a few of the ripening figs split upon the tree. 
While this is an injury to some extent, it is not a very serious one. 
There seems to be a difference of opinion as to the cause. Some 
growers are firmly of the opinion that it is caused by too many 
Blastophagas, or, in other words, by overpollination; others think 
that it is due to too much irrigation. The writer, however, is con- 
vineed that these are not the principal causes, but that the cause is 
principally climatic. If damp weather, not necessarily rain, occurs 
during the ripening period, it seems to stimulate the circulation of 
the sap and gorges the fruit with juice until the pressure is such that 
the tender skin fails to resist and the fig splits open. If, however, 
this period of dampness is followed by warm, sunny weather, such 
fies dry without souring, the split closes up, sand they are nendil dis- 
posed of at 2 to 4 cents per pound, which pays for cathering and caring 
for them. The proportion of figs that split sue exceeds 25 per 
cent; nearly always the proportion is much less. 
Trees have been observed standing on the banks of irrigating 
ditches where the supply of moisture was continuous and showing 
less split figs than trees in the same orchard that received only 
occasional irrigation. It appears that when the ground has become 
too dry and water is then applied a stimulation in the circulation of 
the sap is caused and is almost invariably followed by more or less 
splitting, while if the supply of moisture has been continuous few, if 
any, splits occur. The splitting of oranges and prunes is attributed 
by many to the same cause. 
FIG BREEDING. 
Fertile seeds can be secured from all kinds of our cultivated figs 
by caprification and the breeder can readily perpetuate by vegetative 
propagation desirable hereditary characteristics in his seedling trees. 
It has been found from experience, however, that about one-half of 
such seedlings are capri or staminate trees. The process is exceed- 
ingly simple. A twig is selected with a number of figs from three- 
eighths to three-quarters of an inch in diameter (the receptive size 
in most varieties) which have not been entered by the insects. Drop 
into a paper bag a caprifig with Blastophaga ready to issue and tie 
it tightly over the twig, and the insects will do the rest. At the end 
of two or three weeks remove the paper bag and replace it with one 
of mosquito netting for protection against birds and to piovert the 
ripe dried fig from falling to the prone. : 
DESCRIPTIONS OF VARIETIES. 
For the purposes of this bulletin it is deemed sufficient to describe 
those Smyrna fig varieties that are, promising or have already 
assumed importance in the fig Industry. Of the hundred or more 
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