FIG. 173 



Pruning. — Thin out the shoots to allow all to stand free 

 and clear of each other, then shorten back the young wood 

 from about three to six inches of the preceding year's growth. 

 This makes the bushes spur^ as gardeners term it, and on 

 these spurs the fruit is produced. The plant must be yearly 

 supplied with manure among their roots, digging the ground 

 carefully every Spring or Fall. By this treatment the fruit 

 will be like bunches of Grapes, and form a great contrast to 

 the meagre affairs so generally seen in our markets. Even in 

 our best gardens their culture is very imperfectly attended to, 

 producing fruit all skin and seeds, and giving a very faint 

 idea of the richness and perfection to which it can attain. 

 Plant them eight feet apart, and if well treated they will last 

 twenty years. 



FIG. 



Ftcus Cdrica. — Figuier, Fr. — Feigenbaum, Ger. 



The Fig is one of the fruits first mentioned in history. Its 

 cultivation appears to have been coeval with that of the Apple 

 and the Grape. It has been admitted through all ages as an 

 article of food, and some nations have been so exceedingly fond 

 of the fruit that its exportation was forbidden. If history is 

 to be relied on, we are retrograding in the culture and im- 

 provement of the Fig. Pliny, the Roman naturalist, is said 

 to have accurately described about thirty sorts. It was exten- 

 sively used in all ceremonies, and was presented to appease 

 anger. Asia is its native country, and we read of specimens 

 of the fruit having been brought from the " Land of Canaan." 

 It is cultivated to an immense extent in the south of Europe, 

 and dried and exported. Many thousand tons reach this 

 country that might be grown with great facility along our 

 fences, froiii North Carolina to Florida It is not hardy 



