THE KADOTA FIG 39 



Frozen Nursery Stock 



As I said in another portion of this book, the planter would do well to 

 know the habits of his nurseryman. But very few of the average nurserymen 

 know as much about fig nursery stock as they do of other varieties. They do 

 not, as a rule, appreciate the extreme delicacy of the roots of the baby hg 

 trees they are selling. A breath of hot or dry air will injure them, and the 

 most extreme care should be exercised at all times in their handling. Exposed 

 to the sun, they are injured or killed. Exposed to frost, the same results occur. 



Frost will injure a nursery-bed, and the trees, large and small, may be 

 so chilled, if not actually frozen, as to be almost useless. A frozen rooting 

 will show the top black, and, at times, bent over. At only a short space at 

 the top may this be noticeable, and while the buds are bright and green in 

 appearance all down the tree, yet it may be frozen to the roots. 



Let the planter take his knife, and with the small blade cut into and 

 upward deeply in the bark of the stick. Now press the portion so cut DOWN 

 and back into place. If milk issues from the wound, that part of the stick on 

 down to the roots is uninjured. If nothing issues from the wound, or only a 

 little watery substance, you may rest assured that from the incision upward to 

 the top, the tree is frozen. The tree may be frozen only a portion of its 

 length, and by so prospecting downward you may determine exactly the 

 point where the tree should be cut off and waxed over. 



In the case of the Kadota, it should be cut to within 1 or 12 inches 

 from the ground when planted, and if frosted the frozen part is thus cut away. 

 In any event, the stick should be cut on down until the milk will flow freely, 

 even though it should be necessary to cut it off level with the ground, in which 

 event the tree will branch AT the ground instead of a few inches farther up. 

 Either method is good, as the results desired may thus be obtained, namely, a 

 low, spreading tree, easily picked without the use of ladders. 



Here is something to remember: When a tree is growing the sap flows 

 upward from roots to leaf and branch. When the same tree is dormant the 

 roots are sustained by a DOWNWARD trend of the sap in the tree. The 

 more the roots draw on the tree the more HARDENED and DORMANT 

 it becomes. Nursery stock in autumn, not exposed to very severe frosts, slowly 

 becomes dormant and later in the season may withstand a severe freeze without 

 injury. However, if the frosting takes place early in the autumn, the tree is 

 caught full of sap and the frozen portion sours and generates a poison, which 

 is slowly drawn down into the roots, causing even the unfrozen part of the tree 

 to die, and in the majority of cases so infecting the roots that they in turn are 

 killed. 



However, in most cases if too long a time does not elapse from freezing 

 to cutting away the frosted portion, the tree may prove as good as any. If 

 planted and left uncut and unwaxed, the loss is almost certain. My experi- 

 ence has been that if the frozen tree is in orchard form and frosted portions 

 cut away and roots never removed from the ground, it will nearly always 

 come again. Furthermore, the Kadota has proven far more sturdy under 

 the freezing and cutting back than any of the other figs I have ever handled. 

 They seem to have more vitality under such abuse and a satisfactory stand 

 may be secured from stock frosted, and cut back, if planted early in the 

 season. 



