FIGS. 171 



turiens, Noyer Fertile of the French, deserves the 

 especial attention of growers. The young trees will 

 sometimes bear when only two feet high ; different 

 specimens vary in fertility, but any walnut which bears 

 so early must be worth growing. 



CHAPTEK XXXI. 



FIGS. 



FIGS can only be grown with success in a warm situa- 

 tion, for hot, glowing sunshine is more to them than 

 soil. There are few parts of England, except the far 

 West, and the genial Channel Islands, where they bear 

 abundantly, but in warm, sheltered spots on the warm 

 chalk of Kent, and in similar situations, they will, in fine 

 seasons, produce plentiful crops of well-flavoured fruit. 



A warm, genial summer is what they require : if there 

 be over-much wet they crack before they ripen. 



A chalky loam is said to be the soil which suits the 

 fig best, but almost any good, rather light garden soil 

 will do for it. The ground must not be much manured, 

 as that will encourage a too rampant growth. 



The fig roots firmly from cuttings. Take the cuttings 

 of ripe wood, about four inches long, plant them in pots 

 in January or February, plunge the pots in a moderate 

 hotbed, and by the end of summer you will have nice 

 little plants, fit for either fruiting in pots or for planting 

 out. If the young plants are wanted for forcing, pot 

 them when rooted, bring them forward with bottom 

 heat, and treat them much the same as vines. Those 

 which are to go into the open ground should be planted 

 out when there is no longer danger of frost. If the 

 roots have become crowded in the pots, spread them 

 nicely in planting them. 



The fig propagates freely by layers, and also by 

 suckers taken from the parent tree, and shaded and 

 sheltered until they take to growing. 



