CHAPTER VI. 
PROPAGATION OF THE FIG. 
GENERAL REMARKS. 
The fig tree may be propagated in various ways. Few trees are as 
easily grown and few require less skill and previous experience. The 
fig tree may be started in the orchard in the very place where it is 
destined to remain, or it may be propagated in the nursery and later 
on transplanted. The former method can be used only when the 
desired number of cuttings is available. Under favorable condi- 
tions it is the best way to start a fig orchard, as this method is less 
expensive and requires less time. But conditions may make other 
modes of propagation necessary, especially when large cuttings of the 
varieties required are not to be had or are too expensive to justify 
their use. 
While with proper care a fig orchard is very easily started, some 
little neglect and ignorance of detail frequently cause great loss of 
trees during the first season. It may be truly said that the fig is both 
the easiest and the most difficult tree to grow. 
CUTTINGS OR ROOTED TREES. 
The relative value of cuttings or rooted trees is entirely determined 
by circumstances, such as the mode of planting, care given, experi- 
ence of the planter, facility with which one or the other may be pro- 
cured, ete. If cuttings of the desired size, age, form, and structure 
can be had, they are sure to prove very much the cheapest. If the 
soil ean be kept in proper condition and if the cuttings are fresh and 
healthy, cuttings will be found preferable to trees in starting a new 
plantation. ‘Cuttings, if fresh and of proper quality otherwise, have 
this superiority over fig trees, that they can always be depended upon 
to grow if given reasonable care. The cutting of the fig tree is remark- 
ably hardy, does not dry out readily, and if once injured can be 
readily restored to life without much risk of a greater loss than a few 
per cent at most, provided, of course, the drying out has not gone 
beyond a certain limit. Rooted fig trees are in our country easy to 
get, as they are grown here for sale. They have also the advantage 
of being all of a certain size, can make standard trees at onee, and, 
provided they are fresh, they will bear sooner than cuttings. But 
rooted fig trees have some drawbacks not possessed by other fruit 
trees, except, perhaps, the olive. The fact is noted that if the trees 
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