Cultivation of the Fig under Glass. 363 



certainty of getting them well ripened under glass, there is 

 the further advantage of securing two crops in the year of 

 rich jelly-like fruit; while those on the external walls fre- 

 quently [in dull seasons) do not ripen well, and are mawkish 

 and insipid. Strange as it appears, the fig is less cultivated 

 in England than it deserves to be, even in our largest estab- 

 lishments. The writer would invite the attention of gentle- 

 men to the propriety and advantage of devoting a portion of 

 their glass to this fruit, which he assures them will gratefully 

 repay any extra care bestowed upon it ; and having succeeded 

 in its management, he begs with deference to lay before the 

 society a few hints derived from his own practice and ob- 

 servation. 



Three years ago there existed upon a south wall at this 

 place a large fig tree, of the brown Ischia kind, over which 

 it was thought desirable to build a house, which should also- 

 be used for the culture of figs in pots, conjointly with that 

 of the tree upon the back wall : the house placed over it 

 being 48 feet long by 13 feet in width, and the fig tree at 

 the present time not only covering that space to a height of 

 13^ feet, but extending across the ends of the house. 



As soon as the house was erected, it became necessary to 

 consider what Avould be the course of treatment best suited 

 to further the end in view, viz. : by artificially lengthening 

 the period of summer to enable it to ripen the figs produced 

 by the second flow of the sap, which figs do not ripen in the 

 open air in this country, and which Mr. Wickham, in the 

 Transactions of the Society, some years ago, aptly denomi- 

 nated as ^^sterilizing incumbrances.^' 



The tree was trained in the fan-shaped manner, and it was 

 found necessary on re-training it to remove many old and 

 sterile branches to make room for younger bearing wood ; 

 this, with the facilities afforded for root extension by the 

 border inside the house not being dug as before, induced a 

 state of luxuriance incompatible with productiveness ; and it 

 was found at the end of the first season not to have been so 

 fruitful as it might have been, in other words, it had not yet 



VOL. XVIII. NO. VIII. 45 



