THE FIG. "19s 



this system of pruning and summer pinching, it can 

 easily- be seen, directs the efforts of the plant to the pro- 

 duction of fruit, and only as much young wood as is 

 necessary for next season's crop. The young wood pro- 

 duced this summer is that on which next season's early 

 crop is produced, so that the early fruit-bearing wood 

 is that which in the winter pruning is spurred back — 

 i.e,, shoot 6 is cut back this year, and shoot a the next. 



The fig is thus systematically pruned without the 

 too common confusion of a lot of haphazard growths in 

 all directions, either to be lopped off with the knife, 

 causing unnecessary wounds and bleeding, or to be tied 

 up in confused unmeaning bundles, serving no purpose 

 whatever. A little trouble and attention in the way of 

 directing the summer growths to form trees thus into 

 cordon, or horizontal leaders, with lateral fruit-bearing 

 growths, to be alternately spurred back, reduces the 

 management, and yearly pruning and pinching, to as 

 simple a routine as that of spur-pruning the vine, and 

 has great advantages over the system of tying in three 

 times more growths every season than are required, to 

 be cut away in winter, sadly mutilating the trees. 



Root-Pruning. — For the first few years after young figs 

 are planted, root-pruning should be as carefully attended 

 to as the training and pruning of the trees themselves, 

 otherwise they will not so soon be brought into a 

 fruitful condition. The roots should be seen to at the 

 time of winter pruning. A trench should be taken out • 

 down to the drainage round each tree at about 3 feet 

 from the stems, and the roots carefully disentangled, 

 lifted back to within 20 inches of the stem, pre- 

 serving all the finer fibry roots, and cutting back those 

 that are strong. The second year the same process 

 should be attended to, but not encroaching so near the 



