Lower coast gazette., 1909-04-10

10, 1909.
E. N. PEREZ,
Secretary.
PEREZ,
Pres. Pro- TEN.
The proceedings of the School Board
and several items of interest were omit
led, this week, on account Of lack of
space, but will appear innext issue.
Figs and Fig Culture.
Many think that they have seen fig
trees and fig orchards bnt unless they
have visited those orchards which make
of fig growing a profitable commercial
proposition they are mistaken. 1mag-
inc a growing orchard of fifty trees,
trees three and four years old, which
will bring a revenue of $500 the acre.
This is a wide stretch of imagination,
you say, and yet it is what is being
done right here in Texas.
A recent visit to the fig orchard con-
nected with the Ain nurseries at Al
goa, under the management of R. H.
Bushway, is a revelation, not only in
the amount of fruit produced, but in
methods as well. Here are trees set
fifteen feet apart. which don't reach
beyond the hight of a mans head, and
yet thickly grown with new branches,
and each branch loaded with ripening
fruit. There is no proposition Of climb
ing to gather the fruit; everything is
picked from the ground, and the picker
walks between the rows, with a bucket
swinging from his belt, and picks the
ripened fruit.
How is this accomplished? Simply by
the system of pruning. When the tree
is planted, it is but a year old, and the
first year it grows up straight and tall.
During the year the branches have oil
been rubbed off to produce this straight
stem, and when pruning time comes in
fall or winter this stem is cut off about
eighteen inches above the ground. The
effect of this is to send out shoots from
the stem the next year, and of these
two of three are allowed togrow. These
bear figs along their entire length. The
next winter these are all cut off to with
in six or eight inches from the trunk.
These short stubs of limbs in turn put
out branches the next year, probably
from two to four for each stub and
these branches in turn bear fruit dur
ing the season. With the return of
winter, these branches r again cut
back to within six or eight inches Of the
patent branch, and the process of limb
development is repeated. Thus each
year the growth and development null
tiplies upon the same plan that proba-
bly, all have worked out, where the boy
undertook to receive as wages a penny
the first day, two. pennies the next,
four pennies the next, and so on.
Any enc can figure this proposition
for himself. Suppose the parent stalk
49, 49,
bore two branches the first year, and
these, cut back, bore two each the next
year; these each bore two more the
next year. It will be seen the area
new wood will be something prodfgious
in a few years, and as everybody who
is at all acquainted with figs knows
that they produce only on the new
wood, the number of figs that such 9
tree will bear can be imagined.
This trimming back serves two pur
poses. 1t stimulates the growth Of
new wood, for as the old wood is prac'
cally all cut away each year, there il
no sap or strength Of the tree needed
to support the old or parent wood; ever,
thing is contributed to the growth o.
Jew wood. The other purpose is tina
trees treated by this method are easil.
harvested Everything is picked from
the ground. There is no climbing o
ladders. Whenever one has to climbs
ladder,to gather figs he begins climbing
the profits off, and add this loss o
profits to the loss by a lesser numbe
Of figs raised without pruning the tree
and one could soon figure himself into
deficiency.
The figs cultivated by MIR. Bushwa
are of the Magnolia variety. To som
they may not be familiar, and to thes
it may be well to explain that they ar
a yellow fig Of thin skin. and are cor
sidered the ideal fig for preservation
! not only on account Of its appearance
, but flavor as we'll. Factories will nc
take any other variety, and you coul
not make them q present of the pr
; duct Of the blue fig tree for preservin
: purposes, 80 that Beaumont, in estal
fishing its fig business, should see thu
they are getting the Magnolia variet
i. as a commercial proposition.
/ The relative merits Of the Magnoli
); fig and the California variety used i
preserving may be seen in the fact tn.
q selling agent for California preserve
figs. recently in this territory, was COZ