92 FRUIT GARDEN. 



It is of the nature of the fig-tree to produce two sets of 

 shoots and two crops of fruit in the season. The first 

 shoots generally show young figs in July and August, but 

 these in the English climate very seldom ripen. The late 

 or midsummer shoots likewise put forth fruit-buds, which, 

 however, do not develop themselves till the following 

 spring, and then form the only crop of figs on which we can 

 depend in Britain. 



Various modes of training fig-trees have been proposed. 

 Mr. Lindley recommends the horizontal form. Mr. Knight 

 carries up a central stem perpendicularly to the top of the 

 wall, and then radiates the side-branches horizontally and 

 pendently, in close contact with the wall. Luxuriance of 

 growth is supposed thus to be checked, and the branches 

 thrown into a bearing habit. The finest fig-trees which 

 we have seen in Scotland are trained in the old fan form. 

 The shoots are laid in, thinly, at full length, and en- 

 couraged to extend themselves as fast as possible, precau- 

 tion, however, being taken to leave no part of the tree bare 

 of young wood. Much of the pruning is performed in 

 summer by pinching off unnecessary shoots, and Ihe knife 

 is seldom employed, except in removing naked branches, or 

 in cutting back to procure a supply of young wood. Some 

 cultivators break off the points of the spring shoots, in or- 

 der to produce laterals, but this must be done at an earlier 

 period, not later perhaps than midsummer, otherwise the 

 young shoots will not ripen. The Rev. Gr. Swayne recom- 

 mends rubbing off all the young figs which appear in autumn 

 on shoots of the same year, observing that for every young 

 fig thus displaced the rudiments of one, or perhaps two 

 others, are formed before winter, and developed in the fol- 

 lowing year.* 



* It is a proverb in fig culture that " the more you prune the less you 



