326 Cultivation of the Fig. 



Now, Sir, the following is my mode of managing fig trees. 

 About the middle of November I prune and nail them, being 

 careful to cut away all those shoots which have reached the 

 top of the wall, on purpose to give those place that are in 

 their rear ; by this means I keep up a supply of young wood 

 through the whole tree, from bottom to top, laying in the 

 branches thin and regular, because, if too thick, they will do 

 no good. Having finished the pruning and nailing, I proceed 

 to the forests, and there procure a quantity of spruce fir 

 branches, and with them I cover the trees all over, one branch 

 thick ; those branches afford sufficient protection to the young 

 shoots all winter, and in the spring their foliage begins to 

 drop off by degrees, so that the trees get naturalised to the 

 season by a process much nicer than the hand of man could 

 effect by any other means. By the 10th of May every leaf 

 has dropped from the fir branches, just when the fig begins 

 to put forth her leaves. I then remove the skeleton branches, 

 and give the trees a complete washing with water, by means 

 of the garden engine, to clear them of all the decayed leaves 

 of the fir which lodge about the trees and crevices of the 

 wall. Silver fir will not do, because they retain their foliage 

 much longer than the spruce. In July I proceed to the sum- 

 mer pruning and nailing; I then cut away all those shoots 

 which I consider will not be wanted to furnish the tree at the 

 winter nailing, the remaining young wood I nail close to the 

 wall, and expose as much as possible the fruit to the sun. 

 Now, in regard to the watering of figs, which I consider the 

 most essential part (for it is my firm opinion that they cannot 

 be brought to perfection without a plentiful supply of water at 

 the root), I once heard a nobleman say that he always thought 

 the fig tree to be partly aquatic. I was more confirmed in 

 this opinion after perusing a treatise on figs written in the 

 south of France in the sixteenth century (if I recollect right), 

 the author of which says, " We place small cisterns under the 

 fig trees, and into them we put the ends of a quantity of 

 worsted threads, and then conduct them through among the 

 branches, bringing the other ends down to the ground, a 

 little lower than those in the cistern ; and by this means the 

 capillary attraction is set to work, diffusing moisture among 

 the branches, and also dropping down upon the roots." The 

 author concludes his remarks by stating that fig trees should 

 never be put into the hands of a sluggish gardener. The; 

 above process was exemplified in the fig trees at this place ; 

 for, until these last two years, the wall which they occupy was 

 the back wall of a stable, now cleared away, the roof of which 

 always rained on the trees when the clouds rained ou it, 



