FIG CULTURE IN VARIOUS FOREIGN COUNTRIES. aw 
In covering the trees care should be taken to make the trenches as 
nearly horizontal as possible and not less than a foot deep, and to raise 
the soil sufficiently above to insure against both cold and damp. The 
center of the tree should be covered more deeply, and a small hill, 
several inches high, should in winter designate the place where the 
roots go down. This is necessary to shed the water and protect the 
roots from excess of moisture. In removing the soil the next February 
or March a cloudy day should be chosen, the afternoon of a rainy or 
cloudy day being best. If disinterred in bright and warm sunshine 
the change is too great and the trees may suffer from being scorched 
by the sun. 
OILING THE FIGS. 
In southern France—in Argenteuil and in Frette—a process is per- 
formed called ‘‘appréter les figues” or hastening the figs. In Argenteuil 
and in Frette it is employed on all the figs which are desired to ripen 
early, the proper time for this process being of the utmost importance. 
If done too early the figs will not ripen at all, but will dry and spoil. 
The proper time is when the fig begins to color and the skin begins to 
feel soft, or about seventeen days before it would regularly mature if 
left alone. Toward evening, if possible, a single drop of good olive 
oil is placed on the eye of the fig, care being taken not to spread the 
oil. The oil is placed on the eye by means of a wheat straw and in 
such a way as to touch only the center of the eye. The next day the 
fig shows a change and in nine or ten days it may be cut, perfectly 
ripe, the operation having hastened the ripening of the fig certainly 
from six to eight days. Such treated figs are also better, sweeter, and 
with smaller seeds than those which have not been oiled. 
VARIETIES AND CROPS. 
As before stated, only the first-crop figs come to maturity in that 
part of northern France under consideration, and only fig varieties 
which produce such figs are grown. The one most generally grown in 
Argenteuil is the Blanquette; at Frette the Dauphine Violette, a later 
but hetter variety, is the favorite. The Rouge de la Frette and the 
Observantine are also cultivated to a limited extent. 
In Argenteuil alone 200 acres are devoted to figs. In Frette very 
many less. The value of the crop in Argenteuil, in 1884, was 100,000 
frances. 
Along the coast of Brittany, principally. at Croisic and Cherbourg, 
fig culture is quite extensive, the mild coast climate being much more 
favorable to the fig tree than that of the interior of central France. 
Strangely enough, the varieties most cultivated are one with perfectly 
developed male flowers and another with degenerate male flowers. 
On the Channel Islands the fig tree assumes the shape and size of a 
small tree and requires no protection during the winter. 
