Science has come to the aid of the Smyrna fig industry in California by importing a fig fertilizing insect from Turkey and thus assuring a crop where before the introduction of this insect the crop on these trees was a general failure. The insect stands well the California climate, and success is assured, and the wonders brought about by science are here again illustrated.

Dates are not yet grown commercially in this country, nor are tamarinds. The United States Department of Agriculture is now experimenting with the date in the Southwest, and expect to successfully introduce the business commercially into this country.

The citrus fruits are grown largely in California, Florida, Arizona, and some in Louisiana. Florida oranges, considering the care and attention given to them in selection and cultivation, are doubtless the finest of any in the world. The California oranges are chiefly the Bahia variety, or, as otherwise called, the Washington Navels and Riverside Navels.

Here is a conundrum I once heard from the irrepressible child, brought in for dessert at a large dinner party. Several had been told when the child bolted in with hers. "Why are some oranges like all people?" No one responded successfully. "Give it up?" "Yes, all give it up." "Well, because they have navels." " Silence, little miss, horrid child," from several. " Honi soit qui mal y pense," ejaculated the proud father, and the conversation went on.

California is indeed a wonderful State. I have been on the summit of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and could have jumped into a snow-bank that would have buried me many times over my head. In two hours by rail you could land and pick oranges and lemons from the trees and see palms flourishing in the open air. I have seen the same conditions at Nice and Monte Carlo on the Riviera, but the surroundings there are more artificial.

Australia is a great fruit country. The pineapple, the grape, and the banana are grown in Queensland. The grape, the orange, the apple, and the peach are grown to perfection in New South Wales and South Australia. Western Australia is a great grape country; in Tasmania they grow among the finest apples and pears in the world, and ship them to Europe in cold storage successfully. The strawberries, raspberries, currants, and gooseberries of Tasmania are also noted.

I have seen fine peaches in London in March, shipped in cold storage from South Africa. I have seen peaches and plums from South Africa in Philadelphia in March. These shipments I think will not be successful. To pay twenty-five cents for a single peach which looks well on the outside and when you open it shows only the flesh as semidry spunk will not encourage a second venture on such lines.

In the Australian countries fruit is so abundant that, in the season, pineapples can be purchased at three cents each, United States money, grapes at from five to six cents per pound, Mandarin oranges for one cent per dozen, and bananas for from two to four cents per dozen.

If we reflect, we see that when the trees of Australia are in bloom our trees here are about maturing their crop, and vice versa, they being about as far south of the equator as we are north of it. The same is about true of South Africa. By the application of modern methods and modern ideas all the world is one.

In Australia the consumption of fruit by all classes of people is enormous and thoroughly explodes the idea that fruit causes general intestinal disturbances and is unhealthy. The death-rate in these countries is very low. There are luncheon shops in all the towns of Australia, Tasmania, and New South Wales where fruit is given, all one can eat, with a cup of tea, coffee, or milk, for from ten to twelve cents. These shops are used by all classes for the mid-day meal, and the people patronizing them are usually strong and healthy. In summer the weather is usually very hot, and fruit ices are used to a large extent. There are many of what are called tea-rooms for women exclusively; the attendants are women, who in their black dresses, white aprons, and white caps have a neat and attractive look. In these rooms six cents is paid for a cup of tea or coffee, with bread and butter and all the fruit one can eat. I mention these matters here because I think such arrangements for both men and women should be encouraged in this country, for the Australian people are a strong, vigorous, sober, intelligent, and progressive race, and this strength and vigor comes, very much of it, from their environment and from the great quantities of fruits and other healthy food they so notably consume.

In giving fruit with bread and butter and cereals, use the sweeter and subacid fruits to the exclusion of the very acid or sour fruits. The very acid fruits may affect digestion of the starch in the bread and cereals, as they may not be sufficiently combined with bases, but contain too much free acid. When the system appears to crave acids, eat sour fruit; do not drink vinegar and such.

As to the peculiar medicinal properties of fruits and nuts, almonds are credited with giving brain power, juicy fruits give the higher brain and nerve power, apples give the brain rest, prunes are nerve sedatives. There are fruit cures, and several centuries ago medical men became enthusiastic over their medicinal virtues, and grapes and strawberries to the amount of many pounds a day were recommended to be eaten. Here certainly was an opportunity for nettle-rash to get in its work and for the vasomotor system to become embarrassed.

The grape cure, not only for indigestion, but for various other ailments, is carried on at the present time to a considerable extent Many persons flock every season to the Rhine vineyards, or to Italy and the south of France, to take the grape cure for from six weeks to two months, and are expected for that length of time to eat from five to ten pounds of grapes daily. Grapes are fattening, and hence are good for the tuberculous and dyspeptics, and they are also of service to the neurasthenics. The grapes must be thoroughly ripe and of the best quality. Sour grapes are said to have the opposite effect. "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."

The various pathogenic and other germs of the alimentary canal are said not to thrive at all in fruit juices, and this is given as the secret of the success of the various fruit cures. There is another way to look at it. Those who take these cures are generally high-livers, and are from the Carlsbad people, and the fruit cure to them is semistarva-tion, and semistarvation to them is just what they need for restoration to health. A course at Carlsbad is about one and the same thing with the grape cure.