26 BULLETIN 732, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
that ought to engage the attention of experimenters, not only in the 
Southwest, but also in the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast States. 
SMYRNA FIG CULTURE IN THE SOUTHERN STATES. 
Many varieties of Adriatic figs are already successfully cultivated 
throughout the great coastal plain from Texas to the Carolinas, chiefly 
for home consumption, canning, and preserving. The home fruit gar- 
den usually contains a few thrifty trees, which provide for the owner 
liberalsupplies of fresh figs from the middle of July to well into Septem- 
ber. The varieties now in most general cultivation are Celeste, Magno- 
lia, Ischia, Brunswick, and Brown Turkey. The first mentioned is the 
favorite in Louisiana, especially in the neighborhood of New Orleans. 
The Smyrna fig on the Pacific coast is equally as frost resistant as 
any of the varieties mentioned. In fact, some of the oldest and 
largest fig trees seen by the writer in the Southern States are of the 
Smyrna type. These trees, it is surmised, are accidental seedlings 
from imported Smyrna figs and include the capri, or staminate, as 
well as the Smyrna, or pistillate, trees, located at various widely 
separated points. Through the lack of fig insects to pollinate their 
fruits no crop is ever secured from such scattered Smyrna trees, the 
figs dropping when about half grown. On this account, Prof. Reimer 
(39), of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, advised 
that all such seedlings in North Carolina be cut down and replaced 
by varieties that do not require caprification. A caprifig tree was 
discovered and identified in the business section of San Antonio, 
Tex., through the assistance of E. B. Pauly. Other old Smyrna fig 
trees were located with the assistance. of George E. Murrell, the 
horticulturist of a railway company. Prof. Boudousquie, of Spring 
Hill College, Mobile, Ala., has half a dozen capri trees, 6 years old, at 
Battles Wharf, on the east shore of Mobile Bay. Capt. Lawrence, 
at Fairhope, in the same neighborhood, has grown Smyrna figs with 
varying success for several years by using caprifigs containing ferti- 
lizing insects, these caprifigs being sent to him from California, but 
has not eed in establishing a colony of Blastophaga on his 
capri tree, perhaps because it is not of a good variety. 
On Damien Island several old fig trees 8 to 10 inches in diameter 
had suffered severely from a hurricane at the time the writer exam- 
ined them, but showed no injury from frost. To the warm waters of 
the Gulf of Mexico is due the immunity of the locality from frost. 
At Brunswick, Ga., a large capri tree was found at the home of 
Mrs. L. M. Russell: The tree is supposed to be 18 years old. It is 
5 feet in circumference 6 feet from the ground and has a spread of 
35 to 40 feet. At Savannah a large Smyrna fig tree was discovered 
on the premises of Mrs. S. D. Richards. This tree has a trunk 10 
inches in diameter. Capt. S. G. Stoney, president of the Charleston 
County Agricultural Society, C. F. Nevins, and M. L. Bissell rendered 
