FIGS RAISING TREES. , ?5 



PROPAGATION AND CULTURE. 



Propagation. This is easily effected by seed, offsets, layers, and cuttings or eyes, 

 also by budding and grafting. 



Seed. Seedling fig trees are easily raised, but the trees take many years to arrive 

 at a fruiting state, and this method of obtaining them is not recommended. Persons, 

 however, who may be desirous of raising improved and hardier varieties should save seed 

 from the finest and ripest fruit, cleanse the seeds from the pulp, sow them in rich light 

 soil in January, and grow the plants as rapidly as possible. To ensure early fruiting 

 they may be grafted, or inarched on old trees, when they may fruit in the third year, 

 but on their own roots they may not fruit till the sixth or seventh year, if then. 



Offsets or Suckers. Young shoots spring from near the base, around the crown of 

 the tree, and, when taken off, have generally a small portion of root attached. These, 

 if planted or potted at once, soon form trees. 



Layers. Bend the branch of a tree down to the ground, cover the previous year's 

 shoots with fine soil, make them fast with pegs, and leave the points of the shoots a 

 few inches above the surface. A cut upward, or a notch made about half way through 

 the wood, immediately below a joint, arrests the sap, causing the emission of roots. 

 Keep the soil moist and fine plants will be formed by the end of the season, if the 

 layering is done before vegetation commences early in spring. 



Cuttings ; Eyes. This is the simplest and most practical mode of increase, as every 

 bud may be turned to account. Kipe young wood is suitable cut into pieces containing 

 two buds (Fig. 15, c, Vol. I., page 100), or into single eyes (Fig. 16, /, page 101). 

 Where a few plants only are required the simplest and best form of cutting is a shoot 

 of the previous season's growth taken off with a heel of the older wood, as shown in 

 Fig. 16, h, page 101, Vol. I. ; these represent the cuttings after the formation of roots. 

 Stubby, short -jointed, well-ripened wood forms the best cuttings, and strikes the most 

 readily. One-year-old wood is the best ; long, spindling, badly-ripened shoots the worst. 

 The best season for inserting cuttings is January or February, taking them off while 

 the trees are at rest ; if taken after the sap is in motion the milky exudation prevents 

 rooting, and the same difficulty is experienced with the young growing shoots in summer. 

 Towards autumn, when the wood is ripening, it strikes more freely. Cuttings taken 

 in late summer may be rooted in a warm border outdoors, but a moiety only will strike 

 under cool treatment. 



All the buds of the part on the cutting to be inserted in the soil must be removed, 



