FIG-TREE. 91 



distances, perhaps not nearer than forty feet, to allow 

 them full space to exhaust their luxuriance. 



It is of the nature of the jBg-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 Au- 

 gust, 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 pro- 

 posed. 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 encouraged to extend them- 

 selves as fast as possible, precaution, however, being 

 taken to leave no part of the tree bare of young wood. 

 Much of the pruning is performed in summer by pinch- 

 ing off unnecessary shoots, and the knife is seldom em- 

 ployed, except in removing naked branches, or in cut- 

 ting back to procure a supply of young wood. Some 

 cultivators break off the points of the spring shoots, in 

 order to produce laterals, but this must be done at an 

 early period, not later perhaps than midsummer, other- 

 wise the young shoots will not ripen. The Rev. G. 

 Swayne recommends 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 



