73 



FIGURATE NUMBERS. 



FILE MANUFACTURE. 



the name of caprification has been given ; but although sanctioned by 

 a practice, the date of which is lost in antiquity, it has been con- 

 clusively proved by Professor Gasparrini that caprification produces 

 no useful effect whatever upon the fig crop, and should be discontinued. 

 (See 'Journal of the Horticultural Society,' vol. iii., in which the 

 subject is very fully discussed.) 



FIGURATE NUMBERS. [NUMBERS, APPELLATIONS OF.] 



FIGURE (Geometry), a finite space, which has a boundary in every 

 direction. The figure of a space is the notion we receive from observing 

 its boundary. 



FIGURE OF THE EARTH. [GEODESY.] 



FIGURED BASE, in Music, is a line, or staff, written in the base 

 clef, over the notes of which are placed figures representing certain 

 chords. This ia commonly called the thorcm'jh-lioae. [THOROUGH- 

 BASK.] 



The fyured bate is fallen into disuse, though we are of opinion that 

 it might still be beneficially employed in scores. But in a piano-forte 

 or organ part, when the harmony or accompaniment is given fully in 

 the treble staff, figures are not only superfluous, but perplexing and 

 incorrect. 



FILBERT, the fruit of a variety of the hazel-nut, or C'aryhu 

 Arel/ana. [CoBVLfs.] The term was originally applied to those 

 kinds of nuts which have very long husks, but owing to the number 

 of varieties that have of late years been obtained, this distinction, 

 which was never scientific, appears to be nearly disregarded, and nut 

 and filbert are almost synonymous terms, excepting that the wild 

 uncultivated fruit, and those varieties which most nearly approach it, 

 are never called filberts. 



The best sorts are the following : 



Frizzled filbert, excellent bearer. 



Cob-nut (Pearson's Prolific, ' Hort. Soc. Cat.'), a very prolific- 



kind. 

 Bond-nut. 

 C'osford. 



Large square Pownton. 

 Northamptonshire, prolific. 



According to the most skilful cultivators, the soil on which the 

 filbert succeeds best should consist of " a hazel loam of some depth, 

 upon a dry subsoil ;" but as this is not always found convenient, it 

 should be remarked that it is not essential to the growth of the filbert, 

 and some even recommend a dry poorish soil The ground should be 

 frequently dressed (at least once in two years), and a small quantity of 

 manure given ; woollen-rags are often used for this purpose with the 

 greatest success, but manure of any kind will be found beneficial. 



Filberts are moat successfully propagated by layers or suckers. The 

 layering should be performed in the earlier part of the season, in 

 order that the plants may be well rooted, and ready to plant either in 

 a nursery, or where they are intended to remain, in the autumn. 

 When they are raised from suckers, these are generally taken from the 

 parent plant in the end of the season, and subjected to the same treat- 

 ment as layers. If it be desirable that the trees should be dwarf, 

 layering and grafting are recommended ; but if strong plants are 

 wanted, they are raised from suckers : it 13 also said they fruit sooner 

 by the last method. 



The method of priming depends in a great measure upon the object 

 the cultivator has in view : if dwarf trees are wanted, the layer or 

 sucker is shortened to about one foot and a half or two feet ; if what 

 are termed riders be desirable, then the stem is cut much higher ; but 

 it the shoot is weak it is better to cut it near the ground, and leave it 

 the proper height at the next year's pruning. Afterwards, wheft any 

 sucker makes its appearance at the bottom of the stem, it should be 

 carefully removed, and not allowed to draw the nourishment from the 

 parent plant. 



In the formation of the head, the chief thing to be observed is to 

 form it regularly, cutting away all strong superfluous shoots, keeping 

 it thin and open in the centre, and thus allowing the free passage of 

 light and air. " There will be produced from the two and three years' 

 branches, annually, short twigs of six or nine inches in length, which 

 generally bear a great many nuts the following year ; these should be 

 thinned out, but not shortened, leaving them in tolerable quantity 

 wherever they are produced, cutting them clean out the following 

 winter, and leaving others in the same manner as those had been left 

 the previous season." (' Lindlcy's Guide,' &c.) 



About Maidstone, and other parts of Kent, the management of the 

 filbert is better understood than in any other part of this country ; 

 and as the soil and other circumstances seem to suit its growth, 

 immense quantities are grown for the London market. " That part of 

 Kent where the filbert is chiefly cultivated is a loam upon a dry sandy 

 rock. The Rev. W. Williamson advisee every one to plant them where 

 they are to remain, whether they are intended for a garden or a larger 

 plantation ; ami after being suffered to grow without restraint for 

 three or four years, to cut them down within a few inches of the 

 ground. From the remaining part, if the trees are well rooted in the 

 soil, five or six strong shoots will be produced. In the second year 

 after cutting down, these shoots are shortened ; generally one-third is 



taken oif, and that they may appear regular, a small hoop is placed 

 within the branches, to which the shoots arc fastened at equal 

 distances ; by this practice, two considerable advantages are gained, 

 the trees grow more regular, and the middle of each is kept hollow so 

 as to admit the influence of the sun and air : but this in a large 

 plantation woidd be almost impossible, nor indeed is it necessary, 

 though in private gardens, where regularity aud neatness are almost 

 essential, it ought to be practised. In the third year a shoot will 

 spring from each bud ; these are suffered to grow till the following 

 autumn, or fourth year, when they are cut off nearly close to the 

 original stem, and the leading shoot of the last year shortened two- 

 thirds. In the fifth year several small shoots will arise from the base 

 of the side-branches which were cut off the preceding year ; these are 

 produced from small buds, and would not have been emitted, had not 

 the branches on which they are situated been shortened, the whole 

 nourishment being carried to the upper part of the branch. 



" It is from these shoots that fruit is to be expected. These pro- 

 ductive shoots will in a few years become very numerous, and many 

 of them must be taken off, particularly the strongest, in order to 

 encourage the production of the smaller ones ; for those of the former 

 year become so exhausted, that they generally decay ; but whether 

 decayed or not, they are always cut out by the pruner, aud a fresh 

 supply must therefore be provided to produce the fruit in the 

 succeeding year. The leading shoot is every year shortened two-thirds, 

 or more, should the tree be weak ; and the whole height of the 

 branches is not allowed to exceed six feet. Every shoot that is left to 

 produce fruit should also be tipped, which prevents the tree being 

 exhausted by making wood at the end of the branch. It frequently 

 happens that a strong shoot springs from the root ; and should any of 

 the first year's or leading branches be decayed, or become unproductive 

 of bearing wood, it will be advisable to cut that entirely away, and 

 suffer the new shoot to supply its place, which afterwards is to be 

 treated in the same way as is recommended for the others." (' Hort. 

 Trans." vol. iv.) 



.Such, according to Mr. Williamson, is the method of cultivating the 

 filbert in the far-famed grounds of Kent, by which thirty hundred- 

 weight per acre has been grown on particular lands ; at the same time 

 he acknowledges that failures are by no means unfrequent, but hs 

 attributes this to the excessive productiveness of successful years. 



The filbert is a monoecious plant, having its male organs in on? 

 flower and its female in another ; and one modern writer, suspecting 

 a want of male blossoms to be the cause of failure in particular 

 seasons, suspended a quantity of the catkins of the common hazel ove 

 the female blossoms of some of his filberts, the result of which was a 

 greater quantity of fruit than his trees had borne for many years. He 

 then tried some irit/i, and others without, the male flowers, when the 

 former bore fruit, and the hitter proved abortive, as he had anticipated. 

 He therefore recommends unpruned hazels to be planted among the 

 cultivated filberts, in order that impregnation may be effected. 



Great quantities of filberts are rendered useless by being attacked by 

 the nut-iceetil (Balaninut nucum), which perforates the nut in its 

 young state, and deposits its egg : in a few days the maggot is 

 hatched, and then feeds upon the kernel. Some recommend the trees 

 to be shaken in June or July, as this is the time when the insect 

 makes its appearance, but no remedy is known which can be said to be 

 effectual. 



In order to preserve filberts in a fresh and plump state, it is only 

 necessary to prevent their parting with their moisture by evaporation. 

 Burying them in heaps in the earth, putting them in earthen jars in 

 a wine-cellar with a small quantity of salt dusted over them, covering 

 them with dry sand, are all good plans, and many others equally 

 efficient will suggest themselves. 



FILE MANUFACTURE. Files are steel tools having flat or curved 

 surfaces so notched or serrated as to produce a series of fine teeth or 

 cutting edges. They are indispensable for the working of most metallic 

 and many other hard substances ; and without then- aid few articles of 

 machinery could be produced. The use of the file must have preceded 

 every step in the progress of finishing articles composed of iron and 

 steel, in all cases where any intricacy of shape precluded the operation 

 of grinding. In the first book of Samuel (chap. xiii. v. 21), the file is 

 mentioned as the means of sharpening the mattocks, coulters, and 

 other edged instruments of the Israelites ; and it may be mentioned 

 as a further proof of the antiquity of this tool, that in Homer's 

 ' Odyssey,' Vulcan is represented as using the hammer and file in 

 fabricating the net in which he entangled Mars and Venus. 



Files always are, or should be, made of steel of superior quality ; as 

 there are few instruments in which a defect in the metal is so com- 

 pletely destructive of utility. An axe, saw, or almost any other cut- 

 ting instrument, though of inferior metal, may be made to do its duty 

 by repeated whetting; but for a bad file there is no remedy, no 

 process of restoration. If too soft, the teeth wear down quickly ; if 

 too hard, they chip off. Steel for making files, being required to be 

 of unusual hardness, is more highly converted than for other purposes, 

 | and is sometimes said to be double converted. The very large files 

 called smiths' rubbers are generally forged immediately from the con- 

 verted bars, which are, for convenience, made square while in the 

 state of iron. Smaller files are forged from bars or rods which are 

 wrought as nearly as may be to the required form and size by the 



