Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1885-09-07
FIGS.

leaves, sewed together, formed the first gar
ment worn by Adam and Eve. Its fruit
was considered nutritious and good six
thousand years ago, and the descendants of
Adam and Eve continue to eat figs, and es-
TEEN them highly for their flavor and rich
nourishing qualities. So highly is the fruit
regarded that among the Greeks the fig
| was supposed to have bssn the tree planted
| in the Garden of Eden, the use of which
| was forbidden to our first parents, but who
| found it impossible to resist the temptation
of induIging in its luscious fruit. Most of
our native and foreign fruits have extra
neous or interior parts unfit to eat, which
make eating them in company, or even at
table, inconvenient. Skins, cores and seed
have always to be eliminated, and some
times not easily disposed OF; but not so with
the fig. Its skin, pulp, seed-every part
have a good taste. They are easily masti
Gated and generally suited to the most del
icate stomach.
An English traveler-a lover of fruit
remem bered with pleasure, to the day OF
his death, the FIRST orchard of figs he ever
in the city of Smyrna. 1t was the season of
figs. Early in the morning, before the sun
had touched the dew, he was out in the air,
and under fig tree. To the under side of
each ripe fig hung large golden drop
which glistened in the early light like
honey. He plucked and ate. Such deli
cious figs he never before, or since, tasted.
Asia is the home of the fig. Europeans
obtain them from the old settlements sur
rounding the northern shores of the Medi-
terranean. Figs, grapes and pomegranates,
were among the best fruits of the Holy Land,
even in the days of Noah, Abraham, and
Moses, and every commercial port of India,
now furnishes figs in abundance. The
brown Turkey fig, and the white and brown
of Ischia and Marseilles are esteemed high.
ly as carefully picked and honestly packed,
but scarcely any rank higher than the
'Eleme' fig of these countries, which means,
those picked by hand. These are discerned
by the pickers, as fully ripe, and are then
pressed into boxes or drums" after pro-
per manipulation-so carefully, as TO ex-
clude insects and every change of atmos-
phere, which might be injurious to them.
We read of one or two singular peculiar.
| tiles Of the fig. The first is, that the fig be-
gins to grow from the limb before the bios
som; to perfect the fig there must be cap
rifcation. This is effected by suspending,
over the cultivated figs, branches of the
wild fig; these are loaded with an insect
peculiar to the fig tree. These soon
swarm, and so mature as to be able
to puncture the fig about the time
it has gained its growth. This in
oculation bastens the ripening, richness
and maturity of the fig. The Egyptians
affirm that they gain the same result by
puncturing the ego of the fruit with needle
dipped in oil. In tropical climates fig trees
bear three crops year. The winter crop,
however, is not deemed valuable.
The above brief sketch refers to the figs
of Europe, Asia and Africa. The fig tree
grows rapidly, and produces fruit in abund-
ance in all our Southern States and from
the quantities of California figs on the
market it is concluded that the cultivation
Of the fig needs but little encouragement to
insure, not only full supply from our home
orchards, but figs of superior quality, for
when enterprising Americans set them
selves, resolutely, to work to compete with
the fruit growers of other lands, they have
always succeeded, unless where our climate
is lacking in some essential fruit ripening
qualities.
! A resolute endeavor is now being made
to introduce the best varieties of figs into
| California, and quite large number of
groves have already been planted, the fruit
of which will soon begin to appear on our
markets. Parties there claim that they can
duplicate the best Asiatic figs of commerce.