JAN.] PRUNING WALL-TREES. 193 



have ripened off their fruit. If any such were laid 

 in last season, and still remain, let them now be 

 cleared away. 



Of pruning Figs. 



Figs may now also be pruned with propriety, 

 provided their shoots have been well ripened last 

 summer. If otherwise, the work had better be de- 

 ferred till next month, or even till March or April, 

 lest the points of the shoots be yet hurt by frost ; 

 in which case they might be pruned to improper 

 lengths, and would require to be gone over again. 

 But supposing the shoots have been well ripened, 

 and that they may be pruned with propriety, I shall 

 state the method, as formerly practised by myself, 

 and which, I believe, differs materially from the 

 common way of pruning and training this plant. 



" The chief art in training the fig is, to keep 

 every part of the wall full of young shoots ; the 

 plant naturally running into naked and unsightly 

 branches in the middle. Shoots, however, may be 

 produced with facility, by shortening. They also 

 rise abundantly from the root, round the stem of 

 the plant. Producing its fruit on the shoots of the 

 preceding year, these, if well ripened and hardened 

 by the sun, should not be shortened, but should be 

 laid in at full length, at the distance of twelve or 

 fourteen inches from each other. 



" When the tree arrives at a bearing state, the 

 knife should be used with caution ; for the more its 

 branches are lopped, the greater a profusion of 

 shoots will follow r in consequence ; nor will such 



M 



