FORCING THE FIO IN BRITISH GARDENS. 491 



great advantage. Unlike many crops which all ripen at once, and are 

 only in perfection for a short time, the owner of a fig-house can gather 

 fresh-ripened fruit every day for a long period. 



" The very superior varieties lately introduced from the south of 

 France have no doubt given an impetus to this cultivation. And 

 lastly, there is no doubt the culture is better understood, and success 

 more generally follows. Whatever the reason, no one can doubt that 

 there is an increased desire to grow figs. The cultivation of figs in 

 pots, being very simple more so perhaps than that of any other fruit 

 tree has made great progress. This plan, when well carried out, 

 has its advantages the principal one being that a great variety can 

 be grown in a given space. Indeed, 

 a plant in a large pot may be often seen 

 carrying a larger crop than a huge fan- 

 trained tree on a back wall ; these latter 

 generally making more wood than is 

 consistent with fruitfulness. 



" The object of this paper is to call 

 attention to a mode of growing figs I 

 have seen carried out for several seasons 

 at Worksop Manor by Mr. Miller, 

 which is more successful than any 

 method I have seen practised. His 

 trees are grown in large pots and 

 plunged in the borders, so as just to 

 cover the rims of the pots. A circle Fig in pot. 



of small turfs is placed round them, 

 and some rich soil and manure is given as a top-dressing. The plants 

 are also supplied with manure-water. The shoots are pinched much 

 the same as in pot culture. In the autumn the soil is removed from 

 around the pots, and all the roots which have grown over the rims 

 of the pots or through the bottoms are cut off, and fresh soil placed 

 round the pots. These trees, though highly fed during the fruiting 

 season, make no more wood than is desirable, and the annual root- 

 pruning renders then* very fruitful ; indeed, there are almost as many 

 fruits as leaves, and these of first-rate quality. I have seen no plan 

 of growing figs which appears so good as this." 



There is no fruit which bears pot culture so well as the fig. Plants 

 such as that shown in the cut, and about eighteen inches in diameter, 

 afford a succession of first-class fruit. 



Wintei* Treatment. The glass of the fig-house should not be taken 

 off during winter, because it is an important object to preserve the 

 embryo fruit that are to produce the first crop in the following year. 

 Hence, wherever it can be accomplished, the sea-side temperature of 

 Genoa or Naples, which is rarely under 38 or 40, ought to be main- 

 tained in the fig-house throughout the winter months. This is most 

 conveniently and economically done when the plants are kept in pots 

 or tubs, as they can then be removed to a shed or cellar, as is the 

 practice in Germany. 



