FRUIT-GARDENING. 85 



method is by layers or cuttings, which come into bearing the 

 second, and sometimes the first year. No tree is more robust 

 or more prolific ; even plants in pots or tubs kept in a tem- 

 perature adapted for the Orange-tree, will fruit freely, and 

 ripen two crops a year, and by being taken care of through the 

 winter, will go on growing and ripening fruit without inter- 

 mission. Mr. Knight has obtained from his hot-house in Eng- 

 land, eight successive crops in a year, by bending the limbs 

 in a position below the horizontal. The trees will produce 

 tolerable crops in the second year if rung or decorticated. Its 

 maturity is also hastened by pricking the fruit with a straw 

 or quill dipped in olive oil, or even by slightly touching the 

 fruit with oil, at the finger's end. In Fig countries the fruit 

 is preserved by dipping it in scalding lye, made of the ashes 

 of the Fig-tree and then dried in the sun. 



RINGING OR DECORTICATION. 



Girdling, decortication, ringing, or circumcision, as it is 

 sometimes variously called, consists in making two circular 

 incisions quite around the limb, through the bark, at the dis- 

 tance of about a quarter of an inch asunder, more or less, 

 according to the size and thickness of the tree ; then by mak- 

 ing a perpendicular slit, the ring of the bark is wholly removed. 

 Ringing or decortication is applicable to every kind of fruit- 

 tree, and to the vine. Its operation is twofold. First, in the 

 early production and abundance of blossom-buds which it 

 induces ; and second, in increasing the size of the fruit and 

 hastening its maturity, according to the season in which the 

 operation is performed. 



When Figs are cultivated in a garden, a good loamy soil 

 should be provided ; and they may be trained to close fences 

 or trellises, in sheltered situations. At the approach of winter 

 they must be protected ; those trained to close fences may be 

 secured through the winter by a covering of matting ; and 

 such as may be in open situations should be liberated from 

 the trellis, and laid down close to the ground, and covered 



