FRUIT UNDER GLASS. 159 
THE Fic. 
The cultivation of the fig under glass was, up to very recent 
years, generally considered a very secondary affair. The back 
of a vinery, or back of some house the front of which was 
devoted to the growth of other things considered then of more 
importance, was considered just the right place to plant fig-trees. 
I wish to say here that I have seen some splendid examples in 
different parts of the country of immense fig-trees on the back 
walls of vineries, giving large crops of very large figs, the borders 
for the roots in all cases being restricted to about a width of two 
feet. Well-grown ripe figs, however, have in recent years come 
to be considered our best and most to be desired fruit. It is 
said, from a gastric point of view, that a person may eat ripe 
green figs who could not eat any other fruit. We find, therefore, 
that in gardens where the fig formerly gave one crop of fruit in 
. the year on the open walls, houses specially for growing the fig 
have been built; I instance one in such a very mild district as 
Fota, near Cork. And we need not wonder, for the fig does not 
require a high temperature, and if grown under glass in the 
desired temperature, it gives in the year two full crops of ripe 
fruit. 
The form of house best adapted for early forcing is lean-to; for 
later crops the span-roof is best, as it gives the greater fruiting 
space. The roofs of the houses should be trellised in the same 
way as for vines, and the fig-trees trained all over the roof so as 
to ensure short-jointed well-ripened wood. In making borders for 
fig-houses, if the site is a cold clay subsoil, a concrete floor must 
be made, sloping to a drain running along the front of border if 
the house be a lean-to; or, if span-roofed, the drain should be 
under the pathway and the concrete floor sloping from both sides 
to the pathway. To have each tree growing in the most fruitful 
and favourable circumstances, instead of filling up the whole 
border with drainage as for vines, you must intersect the border 
with brick walls, dividing it up into as many spaces aS you ae 
to plant trees. This restricts the root-space and prevents the 
roots of one tree growing into another, and thus you can control 
the roots of any tree you wish. These sections or root-spaces 
must be made in size according to the size of the tree to be 
