1878.] 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



85 



■wainscoting, and finishing lumber from some 

 twenty-live varieties of the most valuable hard 

 <xnd soft wood grown by himself. It was not the 

 nctual necessity for timber tliat induced this, for 

 the country about Elgin, on the Fox river, is 

 well wooded and contains ample timber even 

 for tiring purposes. Mr. Scofield, many years 

 ago, was thoroughly alive to the necessity of 

 timber growing in the AVest, and he has shown 

 that a man past middle age may rear noble trees, 

 even of the slow growing sorts, while yet he 

 remains a hale and hearty man." 



Eucalyptus Fire-Wood. — It has been 

 thought that the Eucalyptus would be a great 

 ooon to California in the way of fire-wood, but 



Dr. Baer has recently addressed the California 

 Academy of Sciences on this subject, and insists 

 that the wood is almost incombustible. He says 

 it is impossible to fire a roof made of blue gum 

 shingles, so that wliat may be lost in fire-wood 

 may be a gain in making it a substitute for slate. 

 WrLLOAVS FOR RAILROAD TiES. — Mr. JessB 

 W. Fel', of Bloomington, 111., has created some 

 consternation in forestry quarters by asserting 

 that the white willow makes durable timber for 

 railroad ties. If this is borne out by good tests it 

 would be an extremely valuable fact — so valu- 

 able that it is well worth waiting for the actual 

 figures before making up one's mind that it is 

 no good. 



Natural History and Science. 



COMMUNICA riONS. 



BARRENNESS IN THE FIC TREE. 



TI. W. RAVENEL, AIKEN, S. C. 



We read in the Bible of " a barren Fig tree •," 

 but of the many hundreds I have seen I know 

 of only one instance, and that in my own 

 orchard. I will record its strange freaks, so that 

 if you or anj- of your readers have seen a simi- 

 lar case, I may have the benefit of your sugges- 

 tion as to the cause of barrenness and the 

 remedy. The habit of the Fig under out-door 

 ■c-ultivation in our latitude is briefly this : 



In the Spring, as the leaves unfold and the 

 new wood forms, there is a fruit-bud in the axil 

 •of each leaf, which begins to develop and grow 

 rapidly. This process continues until about 

 mid-Summer or after, so that there is a succes- 

 sion of fruit varying in age, and ripening in 

 their order of growth. Towards Autumn, al- 

 though the wood and leaves continue to grow 

 vigorously until frost, no fruit-buds develop, but 

 they remain dormant as buds. These dormant 

 buds, on the approach of Spi'ing, begin to swell 

 :and grow oft' rapidly, uhless it has been previ- 

 ously killed by an unusually severe Winter, and 

 give us what is known as "first crop," ripening 

 early in June. This generally is not as abun- 

 dant as the later or main crop, but the fruit is 

 larger. What is known, therefore, as "first 

 <-rop " is the result of fruit-buds formed the 

 Autumn before, and remaining dormant through 

 the Winter. The second or main crop is from 

 l)uds of the present growing season. 



Now for the case of my barren Fig tree. In 

 the Autmn of 1873, when I took possession of my 

 present residence in Aiken, I found this a well 

 grown tree, some 10 or 12 feet high, with several 

 trunks or branches from 4 to 5 inches in diame- 

 ter, quite large enough to have been in bearing 

 for several years. It had been somewhat neg- 

 lected, but I had it well manured and pruned. 

 During the Summer of 1874 the shoots made vig- 

 orous growth, but no fruit formed. I tried in 

 various waj^s to force out the fruit-buds by 

 pinching the tei'minal growth, and by the use of 

 strong manures, l)ut in vain. In the Spring of 

 1875, the fruit-buds, which should have been 

 pushed the previous Summer, developed finely, 

 and were fully half-grown when they were killed 

 by a late frost. During the Summer of 1875, 

 although there was a healthy and vigorous 

 growth of wood and leaves, no fruit formed. In 

 the Spring of 1876 the same thing was repeated. 

 At the approach of warm weathei-, the axil of 

 every last year's leaf pushed out its fruit-bud, 

 and there was promise of an abundant " first 

 crop;" but again a severe Spring frost, coming 

 after an unusually mild Winter, killed not only 

 the fruit, but injured the tree to some extent. 

 Again no fruit was developed in the Summer of 

 187G. 



This is the first example of a barren Fig tree 

 U*. e., barren of Summer fruit) I have met with. 

 The proximate cause seems to be want of exci- 

 tability, and consequent non-development of 

 the fruit-buds during the growing season. What 

 could have caused the change in the usual habits 

 of the Fig, I am at a loss to conjecture. This 



