256 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
WORK OF THE BLASTOPHAGA. 
We have referred to the success attending the efforts of 
George C. Roeding, Fresno, Cal., to grow the Smyrna fig in 
this country. 
The problem of the caprification, or fertilization, of the 
Smyrna fig in Fresno county has been solved beyond all ques¬ 
tion, and on a commercial scale, at the Roeding orchard and 
nursery, about seven miles east of Fresno City. Last year the 
matter was in the experimental stage and was progressing very 
satisfactorily, “as an experiment,” but this year the Messrs. 
Roeding are able to give ocular demonstration that the fertil¬ 
ization or fecundating process has spread through seventy 
acres of land planted to choice Smyrna fig trees. 
Quite recently a Fresno Republican man was shown through 
the fig orchard by F. Roeding, George C. Roeding being in 
Asia Minor, studying the cultivation of the Smyrna fig on its 
native soil, and the following is the result of his observations. 
The figs commonly grown in California are the black variety 
and the white Adriatic. 1 here is no need of artificial aid in 
fertilizing these varieties. It is in the case of the Smyrna fig, 
the most luscious and valuable member of the fig family, that 
artificial fertilization has to be resorted to. The fertilization 
is physiological process, and in no way relates to the treatment 
of the soil. It is, in fact, a marriage of the male and female 
fig trees, brought about by the employment of a tiny wasp-like 
insect which conveys the pollen, or fecundating principle, 
from the one tree to the other, the same way that flowers are 
fertilized by bees and butterflies. 
This artificial process is called caprification, because the 
wild male fig used in the work was obtained originally from 
the Island of Capri in the Mediterranean. A number of these 
wild Capri trees were introduced into the Roeding nursery a 
few years ago in immediate proximity to the acreage of 
Smyrna trees. The latter trees had been indeed fair to the 
* u . . 
eye and beautiful to behold, but before the caprification ex¬ 
periment there was no commercial future for the product, for 
before ripening, all the fruit except a few individual speci¬ 
mens, fertilized by hand, dropped off. 
A fig expert from the Levant visited Fresno about four 
years ago and had several conferences with George C. Roed¬ 
ing. The problem of caprification was thoroughly discussed, 
and the experiments followed. The more the Roedings 
studied the problem the more enthusiastic they became over 
it. They had already solved the question of producing olives 
in commercial quantities in that part of California. They had 
also shown that citrus orchards could be maintained, with a 
commercial annual yield, far out on the plains. But this fig 
problem was something new and something important. 
The Roeding nursery, situated as it is on the sink of 
Fancher creek, on an extremely fertile soil, offered every con¬ 
dition favorable to the experiment, if only the caprifying 
insects would do their work after being assigned to it. Two 
years ago a number of mysterious packages arrived at the 
Roeding nursery. They were from Asia Minor and contained 
male fig-tree fruit, containing the pollen and tiny wasps that 
were to distribute this from the male to the female trees. 
The blastophaga is extremely minute, being barely visible to 
the naked eye. Scientifically the insect is called Blastophaga 
psene. Blastos means a germ, and the fact that the female 
gnaws its way into the fig intended to be fertilized may explain 
the rest of the derivation, which is from phago, to eat. 
Armed with a microscope, one is able to see the process of 
caprification. On every female tree of the Smyrna type hung 
a number of little withered figs from the male or Capri tree. 
By means of a raphe or tiny cord these figs are suspended in 
such fashion that they cannot be easily dislodged by the 
wind till their mission has been accomplished. 
Mr. Roeding split open one of these withered figs, and 
what a transformation! The interior was full of life. It was 
indeed a microcosm that was revealed, only there was one 
feature of it that does not obtain in human life. In the blas¬ 
tophaga world the males have nothing to do but stay at home, 
live luxuriantly and die contented The males are pretty and 
yellowish brown in complexion; the females are ugly and 
black. 
The emerging of the males and females from the cells in 
which they had been immured was easily visible under the 
pocket microscope. Then, after awhile, it was explained, the 
females would make their way out of the parent Capri fig 
through a tiny hole or “ ostiolum ” at the broad end. They 
would be laden with the pollen clinging to the interior of the 
parent fig. After a brief flight the perfect female insect would 
make its way through the ostiolum or tiny opening at the 
broad end of the budding female or Smyrna fig, and there—in 
the search for a place to lay its eggs—transfer the pollen to the 
stigma within. Every fig so visited and fertilized would bear 
fruit that could be dried, packed, preserved and sold with the 
assurance that it would be the exact duplicate of the imported 
fig of commerce. 
Mr. Roeding showed that the life of the blastophaga is con¬ 
temporaneous with that of the crop of figs fertilized by their 
aid. That is to say, the June or first crop represented the end 
of the labors of the blastophaga introduced in the spring, and 
the beginning of the labors of those introduced in the summer. 
The blastophaga of the third crop are left to hibernate, so to 
speak, in the winter in the fig trees which are dormant during 
the season. One of the quaintest and most instructive specta¬ 
cles was that shown by the microscope, immediately revealing 
where a tree had been fertilized. Every female blastophaga 
that enters a fig loses its wings in the process and submits to 
immuration in a prison from which there is no escape. She 
can but wander around within the prison cell, distribute the 
fertilizing pollen, of which she has become the transportation 
agent, and then die. For her there is no return. The micro¬ 
scope shows the tiny wings glistening at the entrance point of 
nearly every fig which a female blastophaga has visited and in 
which she finds her tomb. 
Of course, there are enough brides among the blastophaga 
to insure the perpetuation and reproduction of the species, 
and this goes on at a rapid rate. Indeed, the rate is so rapid 
that from the few hundred introduced into the Roeding 
orchard a year or two ago, the progeny now numbers probably 
over a billion. The experimental stage has been passed and, 
though some human or artificial interference is required in 
placing the Capri figs with their insect content in the female 
trees, the rest is safely left to nature. It is a wondrous prob¬ 
lem, this process of fertilization, but it seems destined in the 
near future, as the result of successful experiment, to provide 
California with an industry fully competing with the manufac¬ 
ture of wine and the packing of raisins. Even now the product 
of the Smyrna figs at the nursery is valued at $300 an acre. 
