208 THE FIG. 



PROPAGATION. This tree is very readily increased by cut- 

 tings taken off in the month of March, and planted in light soil 

 in a hot bed, when they will make very strong plants the same 

 season. Or, they may be planted in a shady border in the open 

 air, quite early in April, with tolerable success. In either case 

 the cuttings should be made eight or ten inches long, of the last 

 year's shoots, with about half an inch of the old, or previous 

 year's wood left at the base of each. 



SOIL AND CULTURE. The best soil for the fig is one mode- 

 rately deep, and neither too moist nor dry, as, in the former 

 case, the plant is but too apt to run to coarse wood, and, in the 

 latter, to drop its fruit before it is fully ripe. A mellow, calca- 

 reous loam, is the best soil in this climate and marl, or mild 

 lime in compost, the most suitable manure. 



As in the middle states this tree is not hardy enough to be al- 

 lowed to grow as a standard, it is the policy of the cultivator to 

 keep it in a low and shrub-like form, near the ground, that it 

 may be easily covered in winter. The great difficulty of this 

 mode of training, with us, has been that the coarse and over- 

 luxuriant growth of the branches, when kept down, is so great 

 as to render the tree unfruitful, or to rob the fruit of its due 

 share of nourishment. Happily the system ot root-pruning^ 

 recently found so beneficial with some other trees, is in this cli- 

 mate, most perfectly adapted to the fig. Short jointed wood, 

 and only moderate vigour of growth, are well known accom- 

 paniments of fruitfulness in this tree ; and there is no means by 

 which firm, well ripened, short-jointed wood is so easily obtain- 

 ed as by an annual pruning of the roots cutting off all that 

 project more than half the length of the branches. In this way 

 the fig tree may be kept in that rich and somewhat strong soil 

 necessary to enable it to hold its fruit, and ripen it of the largest 

 size, without that coarseness of growth which usually happens 

 in such soil, and but too frequently renders the tree barren. 

 The mode of performing root-pruning we have already described, 

 but we may add here that the operation should be performed on 

 the fig early in November. When this mode is adopted but 

 little pruning will be necessary, beyond that of keeping the 

 plant in a somewhat low, and regular shape, shortening-in the 

 branches occasionally, and taking out old and decaying wood. 



In winter, the branches of the fig must be bent down to the 

 ground, and fastened with hooked pegs, and covered with three 

 or four inches of soil, as in protecting the foreign grape. This 

 covering should be removed as soon as the spring is well set- 

 tled. Below Philadelphia, a covering of straw, or branches of 

 evergreens, is sufficient and south of Virginia the fig is easy 

 of culture as a hardy standard tree. 



Two crops are usually produced in a year by this tree ; the 

 first which ripens here in midsummer, and is borne on the pre- 



