1 84 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



give the growth left the benefit of the increased light thereby admitted. When 

 the trees are pruned before or just after the fall of the foliage, the wounds soon heal 

 over, but if the work is delayed until the sap is in motion, the shoots are apt 

 to die after the knife. Branches of almost any age may be cut off at any part, and 

 young shoots will be produced quite freely ; if too numerous, they must be reduced 

 early to the required number. 



Summer Pruning must be resorted to for preventing overcrowding. The leaves of 

 the fig being large, the branches and shoots should be kept sufficiently far apart to 

 prevent the leaves of the one from interfering with those of the other. A good deal 

 of shoot- thinning is therefore required. Disbudding may be practised with great 

 advantage, as more shoots push in spring than can be allowed sufficient space to 

 develop, and it is better to rub off those not required than to remove subsequent growths 

 in large quantities. Sometimes there is not space enough for a growth to be laid-in 

 at full length, but room for a short one a shoot pinched at the fifth or sixth leaf; yet 

 no more of such growths should be encouraged than can receive the direct rays of 

 the sun. That is a vital condition always to be remembered in pruning fig trees. 

 The foregoing instructions on pruning apply to outdoor trees on walls, also to those 

 trained on trellises under glass, and the subject may be further elucidated by studying 

 the illustration on the preceding page. 



The principles of pruning fig trees ought now to be clear to attentive readers, but we 

 must refer briefly to the roots. These ought to be in firm soil ; then, if the rooting 

 area is limited, little pruning will be required. 



Eoot-pruning is rendered necessary at times to repress the excessive vigour of the fig 

 and induce fruitfulness. The operation should be done as soon as the leaves commence 

 falling, never delayed beyond their immediate fall, for if put off until spring it endangers 

 the first crop of fruit. The trees should be taken up, the roots shortened, and then 

 replanted. Some trees will require much root-pruning, others little ; the cultivator, seeing 

 the condition of the roots, is enabled to act according to the need. Young trees often 

 grow strongly and are tardy in bearing, but if lifted and root-pruned every season they 

 become, in a short time, marvels of productiveness. Kampant growing trees, of what- 

 ever size or age, submit to the practice, and it causes the production of short, stubby, 

 fruitful wood in trees under glass equally with those outdoors. 



Preparing Borders. Exuberance is a characteristic of border fig trees, therefore 

 tiie quantity of soil should be very limited in extent, the borders for trees against walls 



