Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 December 1891 — BUGS FOR FIG TREES. [ARTICLE]

BUGS FOR FIG TREES.

Queer Insects that are Imported from Abroad. Some very valuable bugs wore imported to this country for the first time in July last. Upon them rest, so a Star reporter was informed, the hopes of persons who uro anxious to make fig raising u success in the United States. The tree which bears this fruit has a very marked peculiarity respecting its blossoms. They are actually inside of the embryo figs themselves, so that the casual observer would suppose that there were no flowers nt all. However, if you will cut open u baby fig you will find inside it the parts of a flower necessary for reproduction curiously packed away. Both stamens end pistils uro there —namely, the male and female parts—audit is only required that they shall be mixed together in order that the fruit shall ripen. Unfortunately, in the case of the variety of fig which is preserved and brought hither from abroad, this mingling does not usually take place of itself. Thus the trees "would be nearly if not quite barren were it not for the efforts of certain insects of the kind above referred to.

For the purpose of eating the pollen these insects crawl in through a little hole in the incipient fig and wander about within until they have Incidentally caused a stirring together of the pollen and pistils. Now it happens that the bugs are not plentiful enough on the cultivated trees, and so the growers abroad fetch twigs laden with their from wild fig trees and hang them among the brunches. If it were not for this the quantity of the fruit produced in the world would bo comparatively small, although the ripening can be effected by poking little splinters of wood into the blossoms and turning them around. It has been found that figs of this sort, which are the kind valuable in commerce, cannot be produced on this side of the water without these insect friends, and so consignments of the latter have boon landed in California, whore it is expected that they will be successfully propagated. Upon this prospect depends all the expectation at present entertained of fig culture hero. The creation of new varieties of fruits by artificial cross-fertilization has become a science. For example, efforts arc being made nt present to produce an apple that will grow and ripen in Dakota, Minnesota and other parts of the northwest, whore it has hitherto been found impracticable to cultivate this fruit, owing to the inevitable destruction of the trees by excessive winter cold. For this purpose a hardy crabapple has been taken and bred for size with a desirable large variety, the object being to get nn apple that will have the sturdiness of one parent with somewhat of the flavor and size of the other. To accomplish this the experimenter takes a crabapple tree before its blossoms - uro open. Ho opens each bud gently and cuts off with a pair of scissors every stamen. Having thus removed the male parts of the flower he covers the latter with a paper hug, and goes through the same performance with a number of others. Subsequently, when the flowers have opened of their own accord, ho goes to ouch with pollen from a tree that boars great big, juicy apples. Lifting off each paper bag separately, lie touches the pistils of the blossoms with a little brush loaded with the pollen. After the operation he ties the paper bag on again, in this way making sure that no other mule germs can come to any flower so treated. Ho leaves the paper bags attached to the twigs until the, blossoms inside of them have developed into ripened fruit. Of this fruit he Knows the parentage absolutely, and, if it is good, it simply remains for him to establish it as a variety by planting the seeds. Out of 500 seeds 499 will very likely turn out worthless, but the five-hundredth one, perhaps, will grow into a sturdy tree and reproduce the apple obtained from (ho cross So a new variety is established.