iSyi.] CULTIVATION OF HARDY FRUITS. 73 



who differ in many material points from the method adopted and re- 

 commended by the author himself. Now while we have given an idea 

 of the method we think best suited for the cultivation of the Fig, it is 

 perhaps due to the readers of the ' Gardener ' — who are a discriminat- 

 ing and intelligent portion of the community, and quite able to select 

 from any given number of methods recommended the one which is 

 best suited to their own circumstances — to refer in a few sentences to 

 some of the various modes of training recommended by some of our 

 best horticulturists. This is all the more required, seeing the diversity 

 of opinion that exists regarding the matter. Mr Knight, in Vol. iii. 

 of the * Horticultural Transactions,' p. 307, recommends the horizontal 

 main branches, while the fruit-bearing shoots, he says, ought to be 

 trained in a pendent form. The following are his own words : "Let 

 the stems — if there be, as usual, many within a narrow space — be gradu- 

 ally reduced to one only, and from the top and parts near it of this, 

 let lateral branches be trained horizontally and pendently in close con- 

 tact with the wall. Under such treatment all troublesome luxuriance 

 of growth will soon disappear. The pendent shoots will not annually 

 extend more than a few inches, and few or no more leaves will be pro- 

 duced than those which the buds contain before they expand. The 

 young wood consequently ceases to elongate very early in the season, 

 and hence acquires perfect maturity ; while, by being trained close to 

 the wall, it is secure, or nearly so, from injury from the severest frost." 

 The late Dr Lindley was in favour of horizontal training, because " it 

 checks luxuriance, and by this means adds materially to the ripening 

 of its wood." Harrison, who also approves of the horizontal mode of 

 training, further recommends that the fruit-bearing shoots ought to be 

 trained either erect or pendent, according to the luxuriance of the 

 tree; and entering more particularly into detail, he says: "When a suffi- 

 ciency of lateral-bearing shoots is not produced, they may be obtained 

 by attending to the following directions : — When the spring shoots 

 have done growing, which will generally be by the end of May or be- 

 ginning of June, let each shoot where wood is required be stopped by 

 pinching the end betwixt the finger and thumb — so hard as to feel that 

 the shoot gives way to the pressure, but not so as to break it. This 

 will cause shoots to push below where it was stopped. If a shoot thus 

 desired to be stopped be a long one, let it be bruised or broken nearly 

 in two about the middle, or a piece of string be twisted very tightly 

 round it, and the end of the shoot above the string be brought nearly 

 parallel down by the side of the remaining part of the shoot, and 

 this will cause shoots to push where desired." 



Mr Thompson, in his ' Gardener's Assistant,' recommends starting the 

 Fig much in the same way as the Peach — that is, starting with one 



