1 86 FRUIT CULTURE UNDER GLASS. 



their training must begin -with their growth, these buds 

 must be dealt with accordingly. "Whether the plants 

 are ultimately intended for pot-culture, or as bushes, or 

 trained trees on trellises near the glass, I in all cases 

 prefer a plant with a clean stem of from 10 to 12 inches 

 at least. All lateral growths must therefore be removed, 

 or rather prevented by rubbing off the buds, and the 

 leader alone allowed to grow to the desired height, when 

 the top bud should be pinched out. When to be planted 

 out and trained to a trellis 2 or 3 feet below the 

 level of the first wire, the height at which they are 

 stopped must be regulated accordingly. I consider it of 

 the greatest moment in the successful culture of the fig 

 that every tree or bush for pot-culture or planting out 

 should be trained with a clean stem. When allowed to 

 form growths sucker-fashion near the surface of the soil, 

 it is impossible to balance the trees with uniformly 

 fruitful growths. As I am now treating of plants to be 

 planted in borders, and trained near to the glass like 

 vines, I will leave the training most desirable for pot- 

 plants for the present, as their cultivation in pots wUl 

 embrace that point also. Their natural inclination, 

 when in a young state, to grow too rampant, makes it 

 most desirable that plants being reared for planting in 

 borders should be induced, if possible, to form a stubby 

 habit of growth before being planted out. Therefore I 

 do not recommend their being planted the year they are 

 propagated, but to be confined to a rather small pot with 

 poor soU. When they have formed a leading shoot to 

 the desired height, been stopped, and have broken two 

 or three buds at the top, shift them out of the 6-inch 

 into 8-inch pots, and place them in a light house, where 

 they wUl make short-jointed and well-ripened wood. 



