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imported varieties have to be dealt with and many plants 

 raised from a small supply of material, the one- eye fig 

 cuttings, with bottom heat and over-head frames, will 

 succeed quite as well as will one-eye vine cuttings. 

 Budding and grafting can also be done, if desired, but 

 quickness and an assured skill arc required just as with all 

 other milky-juiced plants. Experienced gardeners, how- 

 ever, rightly discourage these methods of propagating, 

 because of the impossibility of preventing the fig stock 

 from perpetually asserting itself with abundant suckers, 

 and they will probably never be carried out here save to 

 utilize trees that remain persistently barren year after year. 

 'Young fig-cuttings which _have struck recently are rather 

 tender to transplant. No time, therefore, should be lost in 

 transfer from the nursery to the orchard ground, and 

 special care should be taken in packing for transit. 



Growers are not agreed to the height at which young 

 trees should be headed back, but on the whole the dwarf- 

 ing plan is recommendable. The rampant growth of the 

 fig demands that not more than three leader shoots should be 

 allowed to remain, and these should very equally divide 

 the circle of the future head. Cutting to inside buds in 

 the early shaping is the general rule to correct the some- 

 what natural sprawling growth of the tree, and when the 

 outline is once obtained pruning is very little required save 

 to cut out here and there an ill-placed branch which 

 -crosses its neighbours. 



Fig Drying. There has been very little written respect- 

 ing the drying of figs in the pages of the Agricultural 

 Journal. Hence, though not exactly in accordance with 

 the plan of this little treatise, it may be well to give a 

 few remarks upon the practice as carried on elsewhere. 



Supposing the sorts have been selected and grown to 

 perfection. The preparation of first-class dried figs begins 

 with the gathering. No heavy-handed clumsy person can 

 pick figs they must be handled delicately if they are to do 

 .any good. Every one must have the stem well on, all being 

 rejected that are broken off leaving it behind on the tree. 

 Pick into a light wire or chip basket hanging on the left 

 arm, for fig-picking requires both hands. From the basket 

 the fruit is laid carefully on the drying trays, all pointing 



