THE ira. 241 



a thin soil or a site exposed to the east wind, the skin of 

 the figs would dry, and thus forming cracks spontaneously, 

 dispense with insect aid, which was also sometimes re- 

 placed by planters pricking their fruit with a quill, or, in 

 the case of Egyptian figs, by making incisions in them 

 with iron hooks, a plan which acted so effectually that the 

 fruit would be ripe in four days after submitting to the 

 operation, and the tree being so speedily relieved of its 

 produce, would bear no less than seven crops in one year, 

 though it only bore four if left to nature. Tournefort 

 gives a similar account of caprification as carried on in 

 modern days in the Greek Islands, except that the culti- 

 vators there themselves collected the flies and transferred 

 them to their trees. " I could not," observes he, " suffi- 

 ciently admire the patience of the Greeks, busied above 

 two months in carrying these flies from one tree to an- 

 other. I was soon told the reason : one of their fig-trees 

 produces between 200 and 300 Ibs. of figs." This process 

 was formerly thought to improve the size and flavour of 

 the fruit, aswell as to hasten its ripening, but is now consi- 

 dered by many to have the very opposite effect; M. Olivier, 

 the botanical traveller, concisely stigmatizing adherence 

 to the custom as " a tribute paid to ignorance and custom," 

 while Bosc significantly inquires, " Who would take it 

 upon him to advise rendering apples worm-eaten, in 

 order to enjoy the advantage of eating them a fortnight 

 sooner?" 



In Italy and Greece the fig-trees are left to grow, 

 according to Nature's promptings, as tall upright stems 

 with branches, but in France they are made to assume a 

 stunted form. London saw them at Argenteuil, on the 

 road to St. Denis, cultivated like the vine, and often mixed 

 with it in the open fields, being only low bushes 6 or 7 ft. 

 high, the branches divided into bundles, which are bent 

 down in winter and covered with earth. To bend and 

 retain them on the surface with stakes, as is done with 

 the vines in the south of Germany, would be quite suffi- 

 cient protection ; but human muscle being cheaper here 

 than anything else, it is preferred to bury them, since 

 that costs nothing but labour. It was even said that it 



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