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round the stem. Figs for table purposes are headed low, so that 

 the fruit can be picked without difficulty. Figs for drying are 

 headed higher, so that the picking of the dead ripe and fallen fruit 

 can be easily done over the smooth ground. The fig tree suckers 

 pretty freely, and these should be removed in the winter time. 

 Wherever the ground is rich the tree will often run excessively to 

 wood, and in that case root pruning will force it into bearing. 

 Drooping branches are cut off, and those growing obliquely upright 

 retained. Dead wood and branches that cross and interfere with 

 one another are suppressed, but the end of the shoots should be 

 sparingly touched with the pruning knife on account of the mode 

 of bearing of the tree. This is as follows : The fruits are carried 

 either singly or in pairs in the axils of the leaves, and they appear 

 on the branch as growth proceeds. If a tree is examined after it 

 has cast its leaves it is seen that all along the younger branches 

 scars show where leaves grew the previous summer. At intervals, 

 just over these scars, diminutive buds, which will in the spring 

 constitute the first crop of figs, appear ; while a pointed conical 

 wood bud crowns the head of these branches. When spring comes 



ait 



Fig Branch showing First and Second Crops. 



