ON EARLY CROPS OF THE GRAPE AND FIG. 289 



Tt was then taken from the stove and placed under a north wall, where 

 t remained till the end of November, when it was replaced in the stove ; 

 and it ripened its fruit early in the following spring. In May it was again 

 transferred to a north wall, where it remained in a quiescent state till 

 the end of August. It then vegetated strongly, and showed abundant 

 blossom, which upon being transferred to the stove set very freely ; and 

 the fruit, having been subjected to the influence of a very high temperature, 

 ripened early in the present month, February. The plant will retain its 

 foliage till April, and will not be prepared to vegetate again till late in the 

 spring, and it is at the present period very nearly in the same inexcitable 

 state with those described by Mr. Arkwright. This experiment will 

 probably succeed well with those varieties of the vine only which produce 

 blossoms somewhat freely, and are of hardy habits ; but abundant crops 

 of fruit of these may be obtained at any period of the winter or spring 

 by proper previous management of the plants, and by the application of a 

 higher or lower degree of temperature. 



The white Marseilles fig, and the other white variety of Duhamel, the 

 Figue blanche, which very closely resemble each other *, succeed most per- 

 fectly under similar treatment ; and if the trees be taken from the stove in 

 the end of May or beginning of June, and placed under a north wall till 

 September, and be then again transferred to the stove, they will begin to 

 ripen their fruit in January or February, and continue to produce it till 

 the end of May or the beginning of June, when they should be again 

 removed from the stove. The figs which ripen in January and February 

 are not so good as those ripened in more favourable seasons : but they 

 are nevertheless very good fruit, and valuable in mid-winter ; and the 

 trees, if the temperature be proper (and they are extremely patient of 

 heat), grow equally well in all seasons, if the roof of the stove be properly 

 constructed, and the glass be of good quality. 



So small a quantity of the fruit which is formed in the preceding 

 autumn, of either of those varieties of the fig, sets in any climate, that it 

 will rarely be found to deserve much attention ; and I usually prune off 

 as much of the annual wood as is necessary to reduce the trees to such 

 forms and sizes as I think most convenient, without paying any regard to 

 their blossom buds. It appears probable that many of those varieties of 

 the fig which will not at all bear the high temperature of a stove in 

 summer, may succeed well in winter and early spring ; but I have not 

 yet had sufficient experience to enable me to decide. 



* Traite des Arbres Fruitiers, Tom. I. page 211. 



