500 GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



dry them in a warm oven, or a kiln made for drying 

 fruits. When dry they can be packed in drums or boxes. 



Imported figs are dipped in a hot lye made of fig wood 

 ashes, and dried on frames in the sun; when dried here 

 they are apt to be infested with minute insects. The fig- 

 is readily propagated by shoots, or cuttings from the 

 roots, planted in the fall or spring. Cuttings should be 

 eight or ten inches long, and include a small portion of 

 old wood at the base of each; if planted in a hot-bed in 

 January, they will make handsome plants the same sea- 

 son. Figs should be planted twelve to fifteen feet apart 

 in good, rich earth. The Celestial Fig is best trained as a 

 low tree. The best soil for the fig is a mellow loam of a 

 calcareous nature. 



Ashes, marl, or composts prepared with mild lime form 

 the best manure. If the soil is too moist the fig continues 

 its growth too late in the fall, when the new wood is 

 killed by the frost; while young, it is best to protect the 

 tree during winter with branches of evergreens. I have 

 found that young trees will mature their fruit and wood 

 much more perfectly and better endure the winter, if the 

 young shoots are broken off at the ends, and if all fruit 

 forming after that is removed, and no more growth is 

 permitted after the middle of September. 



As a general rule, however, with the fig, the more it is 

 pruned the less is the crop. This does not apply to root 

 pruning. 



If from too rank growth of wood the tree drops its 

 fruit, cut off all the roots that project more than half the 

 length of the branches. This may be done at any time 

 during winter. 



Dark-Colored Varieties. 



Brunswick. — Fruit very large, long, pyriform, with an 

 oblique apex; eye depressed; stalk short and thick; skin 



