306 TDE FIG. 



the time when it may be required. The wood should be 

 short-jointed, the buds not more than one-fourth an inch 

 apart. In England dry chalky soils produce the finest 

 crops. 



Pruning. — The fig is somewhat peculiar in its mode of 

 bearing, No blossoms appear, but the figs are produced 

 on the stem, appearing at first like buds. The young 

 shoots of last season bear fruit the next ; and the shoots 

 produced during first growth produce fruit the same season, 

 and this is called the " second crop." These never ripen, 

 and should never be encouraged where the plants require 

 protection. In warm climates, as in some of our South- 

 ern States, these two crops ripen perfectly, though the 

 first from the previous season's wood is larger and better. 



This mode i)f bearing shows that little pruning is neces- 

 sary, beyond the cutting away of old or worn-out branch- 

 es, and thinning and regulating others. Unfruitful trees, 

 in a moist and rich ground, should be pinched in summer 

 to check their growth, and concentrate the sap more in 

 the lateral buds. Root-pruning., too, may be applied as 

 on other trees. Mr. Downing recommends this in his 

 " Fruits and Fruit Trees." 



Training. — Wherever the trees are hardy enough to 

 withstand the winter without protection, as in the South- 

 ern States or California, they may be grown in the form 

 of low standards, as recommended for tlie peach ; but 

 when protection is required, where the brandies have to 

 be laid down and covered during winter, they must be 

 grown in stools or bushes, with a dozen or more stems 

 rising from the socket. These are easily laid doAvn and 

 covered, and easily brought up to their places again, in 

 the way that raspbeny canes are managed. To produce 

 this form, the young tree is planted in the bottom of a 

 trench about a third deeper than in ordinary cases, and a 

 basin is left around it. At the end of the first season's 

 growth, it is cut back to a few inches of the base ; there 



