7§ 



GARDENING. 



Nov. 75, 



The Fruit Garden. 



PROTECTING FIGS IN WINTER. 



There are so many gardens containing 

 a few fig bushes that a few words on the 

 winter protection they require will not be 

 out of place. A common and all-sufficient 

 covering is that of soil thrown over the 

 branches, the limbs being first bent over 

 and kept in place by stout pegs. When 

 bushes have been treated in this way 

 from the time they were first planted they 

 cati be treated in the same way again 

 with comparative ease, even of large size. 

 A neighbor has bushes fifteen feet high 

 which have been so covered for twenty 

 3 - ears, and from these bushes annual crops 

 of fruit are gathered. But a good-sized 

 bush never before bent over will be found 

 a hard customer, and an attempt to bend 

 it will be likely to result in broken 

 branches. I find it just as good a way as 

 any to dig the bushes up every year and 

 either bury them, root and branch, out of 

 doors or take them to a cool, old-fashioned 

 cellar, where it will freeze but a degree or 

 two, if at all. Another reason for the 

 adoption of this plan is this: When figs 

 grow unchecked and make vigorous 

 growth there is but little fruit. When 

 shortjointed shoots are made iruit is 

 abundant. A plant dug up every year or 

 root pruned will produce the wood which 

 will give the fruit. 



It is customary with thegrowersof this 

 tree in Europe to plant it in rather poor 

 ground, in which it fruits far better than 

 in rich soil. This, of course, is on the same 

 principle as root pruning, rampant 

 growth being against it. The fig is seen 

 in many small gardens in this vicinity 

 It is, in fact hardy in this sense that the 

 tops only are killed in winter, growth 

 starting again from near the ground when 

 spring comes. But this growth gives no 

 fruit. There are nice bushes of it to be 

 seen of about four to six feet, which are 

 perhaps ten years old, and which bear 

 iruit abundantly. These are either grown 

 in tubs orare planted out in summer, dug 

 up and wintered in a pit or cellar in win- 

 ter. 



I have seen the fig twenty-five feet high 

 in the south of England, and have seen 

 them here but three feet high with fruit 

 on; hence may be pardoned for using the 

 names plant, shrub and tree for it, as I 

 have done in these notes. 



Philadelphia. Joseph Meehan. 



Meehan's Monthly 



A GUARANTEE of the high standard 

 of Meehan's Monthly is that it is con- 

 ducted by Thomas Meehan, formerly edi- 

 tor of the famous "Flowers and Ferns ot 

 the United States" and of the well and 

 favorably known "Gardener's Monthly." 

 Interesting not only to the amateur gar- 

 dener, the botanist and the scientist, but 

 also to every lover of horticulture and 

 nature. The concise, instructive and 

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The Leading Feature, the colored plate 

 of some native flower or fern executed in 

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 tion price. 



Two Dollars a Year. Sample free. 



THOMAS MEEHAN & SONS, Publishers, 



Box C, Germantown, Phila. 



Meehan s Monthly and Gardening one year tor $:i 50. 



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