Fetticus

Grecian, Figs are chiefly of varieties similar to the "Smyrna" and require caprification. The fruit is generally of inferior quality. After drying, it is usually strung on reeds, bent into "wheels," of various shapes and containing each from :fifty to several hun dred, and packed in large cases: Italian Figs are principally of types which .4;10 not need caprification. The drying is frequently by artificial heat and is facilitated by splitting the fruit.

A popular style is to insert an almond or piece of citron in the pulp after drying.

Grecian and Italian figs are cut as they ripen, instead of being allowed to fall as in Asia Minor.

California Figs.

Fig culture has become an industry of considerable importance it California. The greater part of the crop is dried, generally in the Rile, and the variety chiefly grown for that purpose is known as the Adriatic. The best qualities are packed in small cartons with fancy ribbons. Next importance are Preserved genertilly the fruit of the "Magnolia" or Brunswick Fig.

The self-pollinating trees which until recently have been exclusively cultivated in California, do not produce fruit -to compare in quality with the fine imported Smyrna product, but during the last few years a considerable number of true Smyrna Fig trees have been successfully grown there. Owing to the necessity of caprification, it was formerly impossible to fertilize the blossoms of these trees in California, but a number of Caprifig trees have been imported and a few of these are planted in each "Smyrna Fig" orchard, in order to breed the necessary supply of fig wasps, and to afford them a suitable place to sojourn during the winter.

Southern Figs

are most familiar to consumers in the form of skinless fig preserves put up in syrup. The skin of the fruit is removed by chemical or mechanical means —during the entire process of preserving, the fig is not touched by human hands the preparatory processes of sorting and inspecting the fresh fruit. The variety known locally as the "Magnolia," though really of the Brunswick type, is the most wide ly cultivated in the South. It begins to ripen about the middle of June, continuing until frost.

The last decade has seen thousands of acres of land sold in Texas on the strength of its adaptability for the Magnolia fig crop, and millions of the trees have been planted.

Other figs grown to a considerable extent in the South are, in Texas, the Mission Black, known locally as the "Brunswick" or the "Black California," and, in Louisiana, the Brown Marseilles, known locally as the "Celeste," and the White Marseilles, known locally as the "New French."