ummers are the
principal factor.

It is not alone the parasitic and predaceous insects which are
beneficial. A new industry has been brought into the United States
during the past two years by the introduction and acclimatization of the
little insect which fertilizes the Smyrna fig in Mediterranean
countries. The dried-fig industry in this country has never amounted to
anything. The Smyrna fig has controlled the dried-fig markets of the
world, but in California the Smyrna fig has never held its fruit, the
young figs dropping from the trees without ripening. It was found that
in Mediterranean regions a little insect, known as the _Blastophaga_,
fertilizes the flowers of the Smyrna fig with pollen from the wild fig
which it inhabits. The United States Department of Agriculture in the
spring of 1899 imported successfully some of these insects through one
of its travelling agents, Mr. W. T. Swingle, and the insect was
successfully established at Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley. A
far-sighted fruit-grower, Mr. George C. Roeding, of Fresno, had planted
some years previously an orchard of 5,000 Smyrna fig trees and wild fig
trees, and his place was the one chosen for the successful experiment.
The little insect multiplied with astonishing rapidity, was carried
successfully through the winter of 1899-1900, and in the summer of 1900
was present in such great numbers that it fertilized thousands of figs,
and fifteen tons of them ripened. When these figs were dried and packed
it was discovered that they were superior to the best imported figs.
They contained more sugar and were of a finer flavor than those brought
from Smyrna and Algeria. The _Blastophaga_ has come to stay, and the
prospects for a new and important industry are assured.

With all these experiments the criticism is constantly made that
unwittingly new and serious enemies to agriculture may be introduced.
The unfortunate introduction of the English sparrow into this country is
mentioned, and the equally unfortunate introduction of the East Indian
mongoose into the West Indies as well. The fear is expressed that the
beneficial parasitic insects, after they have destroyed the injurious
insects, will either themselves attack valuable crops or do something
else of an equally harmful nature. But there is no reason for such
alarm. The English sparrow feeds on all sorts of things, and the East
Indian mongoose, while it was introduced into Jamaica to kill snakes,
was fou