The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-05-09

A louisiana paper says: louisiana
seems to be the natural home of the
fig tree, and it grows luxuriantly here
and is very prolific, fruiting abundant
ly every year. There are many varieties
of figs grown in the private gardens
in and around New Orleans, many of
which are delicious: but in the main
not comparable to the little faVorite,
the Celeste. Those who grow figs for
commercial purposes plant exclusively
the latter variety, the Gamers refusing
to purchase any other for preserving.
Last season the Gamers paid five cents
per pound for figs, and failed to procure
enough to fill orders. A large number
of fig orchards have been set out re-
Gently not only in this State but al
so in Mississippi, and there are all
doing well. The fig is one of the most
easily grown of all fruits and is prob
ably less liable to fall heir to the ills
that beset most orchard trees. and,
therefore, their life is less precious
and their attention less laborious. 1t
will stand a greater degree of cold
than the orange, and about the only
enemy to combat is the fiat head
borer. The moth that lays the egg that
produce the bore deposits them on or
near the collar of the tree or in some
abrasion of the bark. The borer can be
easily eIadicated if the tree is looked
after properly. Go over the orchard in
the late summer and remove the earth
from the collar and apply the follow
ing wash. Take stone lime, slack, and
prepare as for an ordinary whitewash;
take enough to make a bucket about
two-thirds full. To this add a small
quantity of crude carbolic acid and
one pound of whale oil soap, or in lieu
of the soap one pound of home made
I've soap, is may be most convenient,
using sufficient hot water to make it
work easily. Apply this to the tree far
up into the limbs and down the body
of the tree well in and over the crown
of the roots. An idea of the product
iveness of the fig tree may he had when
1t is known that trees in Plaquemines
parish just five years old produced each
in some groves as much as $50 to 200
pounds. Here is what W. F. Massey of
the North Carolina Experimental
Station says about figs in the "Old
North State:
Few persons are aware how eAsy it
is to grow figs from the seed. Seeds from
freshly imported layer figs terminate
almost as readily as cabbage seed,
and soon make fine bushes. In the
spring of 1892 1 washed out a lot of
seed from the finest figs l could find
and sowed them in Dots in a green
mouse, putting them into ten-lnch pots
as soon as large enough, and when
the weather was settled transplanted
them to the nursery rows They grew
last season to the hight of about two
feet. January, 1898, was a period of
Unprecedented cold. and all of our old
fig trees We're badly cut down, but,
much to my surprise, the young seed
lings were not injured nearly so bad
~ as the old bearing trees. l did not
expect any fruit on these seeding
under four or five years, and 1 was,
therefore, surprised to find that one
tree out of a lot over 100 had in his
second years growth, set fruit This
small tree bore several figs. The general
opinion has been that the true Smyrna
fig will not mature fruit without
caprification." that is, unless set by
the pollen-carrying insect, common on
the wild Capri fig.