Fig Ga7'dens at Argenteuil. ' 263 



to prevent their rotting the young shoots. In spring, when 

 the earth is removed, the bundles are untied, and the branches 

 restored to their former position ; the dead wood is then cut 

 out. Almost the only pruning given is in June, when the 

 points of all the young shoots are pinched off, to enlarge the 

 size and hasten the growth of the fruit. Whenever a shoot 

 becomes too stiff to bend down, it is cut oif close to the 

 ground, and a young sucker is allowed to take its place. The 

 figs which proceed from the wood of the past year ripen 

 naturally; but those on the wood of the current year fre- 

 quently do not ripen at all, and almost always require artificial 

 aid. This aid consists in dropping a little oil into the eye or 

 flower of the fruit. The woman mentioned was employed for 

 this purpose, and showed us how it was performed. She had 

 a small phial of olive oil suspended from her apron-strings, 

 and in her hand the upper part of a stalk of wheat, forming 

 a tube open at both ends, about 5 in. long. She inserted the 

 small end of this tube in the phial, and, before taking it out, 

 placed her thumb on its upper and broadest end, to prevent, 

 by intercepting the pressure of the atmosphere, the oil which 

 had risen in the tube from flowing out ; with the other hand 

 she then turned towards her the eye of a full-grown fig, and 

 applying to it the small end of the straw tube, lifted her thumb 

 from the other end, just long enough to let a small drop of oil 

 enter the orifice in the fig. Befoi'e requiring a fresh supply 

 of oil, she performed this operation to ten or twelve figs. The 

 object of this application, she told us, was to occasion a sort 

 of artificial ripening or easy separation (pour les faire partir) 

 of the fig from the shoot. It certainly renders them eatable ; 

 but they are far from being equal to those which are ripened 

 naturally. 



We cannot help noticing here the wretched condition of 

 the old man and his wife who gave us the above information. 

 Though neither seemed labouring under acute disease, nor 

 suffering from absolute want of either food or clothes, yet the 

 appearance of both indicated what we should call great natu- 

 ral misery. The man, who appeared between 60 and 70 years 

 of age, was completely blind ; and the woman, who might be 

 10 or 15 years younger, had her eyes highly inflamed, or rather 

 bloodshot, and running with water. Both were without teeth, 

 and very much bent downwards. The woman first caught our 

 eye ; and it was not till we enquired respecting the mode of 

 laying down the figs, that we learned that a man was near. 

 When she went to bring the poor, blind, infirm creature, we 

 were surprised to find him, though it was Sunday, engaged 

 in mowing, or rather in attempting to mow, a small patch of 



s 4 . 



