Ripe figs are very perishable. To be marketed successfully they must be
handled with great care. It is best to pick them in the morning, while
still cool. They should be taken from the tree with the stem
attached—great care being exercised not to bruise them in handling—and
placed in small, shallow baskets, in which they are to be marketed. In
large packages their weight will bruise them badly. The ordinary quart
strawberry basket crate is a suitable package for marketing figs. They
will carry better, however, in flat trays, holding but a single layer.
This form of package is especially desirable for the larger varieties.
Figs should hang on the tree until quite ripe and develop their full
sweetness and flavor, but in this condition they are soft and perishable
and must be consumed at once. For marketing at a distance it is
necessary to pick them while still quite firm. This is unfortunate, for
though they will soften and become quite edible, they will lack the fine
quality of tree-ripened fruit. This fact will always be an obstacle to
the successful introduction of the fresh fig into distant markets. When
picked in right condition the fruit will keep from twenty-four to
thirty-six hours at the ordinary temperature and may be shipped short
distances by express. Figs ripen in midsummer when the weather is
hottest, and this is one reason why they are so difficult to handle.
Like other fruits they will keep longer at lower temperatures. They do
well under refrigeration, and by using refrigerator cars it is quite
possible to put them on the more distant Northern markets in good
condition. This has been done experimentally in connection with other
fruit shipments, but it is not often attempted. Fresh figs are not known
or appreciated in Northern markets, and consequently the demand is too
limited to encourage shipments. It seems doubtful if the distant
shipment of fresh figs will ever become a profitable business. The fruit
is more perishable than any other that is generally marketed. It can be
handled only by the most careful and experienced persons, and even then
it is not in a condition to show its best quality. Ripening in
midsummer, when the Northern markets are crowded with many well-known
fruits, and not being specially attractive to the eye, fresh figs would
at best gain favor slowly. The fact that many people do not care for
them at the first would be another obstacle in the way of their
popularity. Moreover, the fig is a tedious crop to handle, when in
proper condition for market. It is necessary to pick the trees over
carefully every day during the season, or much fruit will be overripe.
With large trees, this involves much labor; the acrid juice of the
immature figs eats into the fingers of the pickers and packers, while
rainy weather occasions heavy loss by the cracking of the fruit, which
renders it unfit for market.
Notwithstanding these drawbacks, a limited demand would undoubtedly be
created if the fig were placed regularly on the market, for many people
are very fond of this fruit. It is quite possible that in sections
especially adapted to fig culture, and favored with rapid refrigerator
transportation, the shipment may become a business of importance. When a
regular home market can be found, even at moderate prices, no crop is
more profitable, as the trees bear regularly and abundantly. The only
hope for such a home market, except in the immediate neighborhood of
large cities, is in increased use by canners.