Book I. 



CULTURE OF THE FIG-HOUSE. 



567 



are generally forced in pots or tubs placed in the peacli or cherry-house, and managed as 

 tliese trees. The ng-tree, when forced, is very apt to cast its fruit before it is half 

 swelled. " A separate hot-house," Neill observes, " is but seldom erected for tlie cul- 

 tivation or the foi cing of the fig ; a few dwarf-trees, such as the brown Italian, and 

 purple Italian, introduced into tlie peach or cherry house, being by most people diought 

 sufficient. It has been found by experience, that dwarf-standard fig-trees, planted in the 

 middle of a vineiy, between the flues, and thus under the shade of the vines, bear fruit 

 plentifully, ripening both the spring and autumn crops. Tliis may be seen in the vinery 

 erected by Hay, at Preston Hall, near Edinburgh." {Ed, En. art. Hort.) Sabine 

 recommends training fig-trees on the back walls of vineries, where he has seen them 

 answer well, the vines being trained immediately under the roof. He says, " It is ad- 

 visable not to ti-ain the vines entirely under the v>'hole of the glass, but to leave a space in 

 the centre of each light, its whole length, for tlie admission of the sun's rays;" judici- 

 ously adding, " the grapes will be perhaps as much benefited by this practice as the figs." 

 {Hort. Trans, iii. 410.) 



3146. The soil for fig borders, or plants in pots, is in all respects the same as that for 

 die cherry. 



3147. Choice of sorts. Abercrombie recommends the 



White Genoa | Chestnut | Black Ischia | Brown Ischia | Black Genoa 1 Malta. 



8148. To which Nicol adds the brown Italian, and black and purple Italian. 



3149. Choice of plants. Such as are two or three years trained, either as wall or dwarf 

 standards, are to be preferred. 



3150. The situation of thej^lajits in the house is generally against a back wall trellis. 



3151. Pruning. Figs are to have a spring and summer pruning ; both of which, 

 Nicol observes, may be comprised in one, by rubbing or pinching oft' the infant shoots, 

 thought necessary to be displaced, in order to give the tree air, and strengthen such as 

 remain. The summer pruning, or rather thinning, consists chiefly in keeping them 

 moderately thin of leaves, so as not to overshadow the fruit. Sabine's trees are pruned 

 in the autumn, after their wood is well hardened ; but as " the object is to get the trees 

 to the largest possible size, in which state they will produce more of the short fruit-bearing 

 shoots, they are cut but little, except it be occasionally necessary to thin them, by taking 

 out a strong limb. " [Hort. Trans, iii. 410.) Fig-trees, intended to bear fruit abund- 

 antly, should never be allowed to produce suckers, or any shoots from the main stem, 

 within eighteen inches of the ground ; fan-training is in general the best method, and the 

 points of the young shoots may be turned downwards, where it can be done without pro- 

 ducing fracture, or inducing them to throw out shoots by the strain requisite for this 

 purpose. 



3152. Stirring the soil, &c. After the gathering of the fruit, the borders are to be 

 forked up and manured, if necessary, as in the cherry-house, and in summer weeded and 

 refreshed. 



8153. The time of beginning to force is generally the same as that for the cherry or 

 peach house : December, January, or February. Sabine, in the case above referred 

 to, where the trees are planted against the back wall, says, " the time of beginning to 

 force is in the middle of April ; the first crop of figs ripens in June,- and the second crop 

 in August." {Hort. Trans, iii. 410.) 



3154. Temperature. " From the leafing time," Abercrombie observes, " till the 

 ripening of the fruit, the fig requires a temperature between that scale which is proper 

 for the peach, and that for the cherry." M'Phail says, " They require a greater degree 

 of heat than the cherry." When bringing forward their fruit, they will bear a good 

 strong heat, if care be taken to keep a free circulation of air moving out of and into the 

 house. {G. Rem. 147.) 



3155. Water. Fig-trees in a house, and especially those in pots, require abundance of 

 water in the stages suitable for watering fruit-ti-ees. {Abercrombie.) M'Phail says, 

 *' The border in which fig-trees grow, should be kept sufficiently watered, till May, when 

 watering over the leaves may be commenced." 



3156. Air. When the figs are planted under glass. Miller observes, " The heat 

 should not be too great, nor the glasses or other covering kept too close, but at all times, 

 when the weather is favorable, a good share of free air should be admitted. In this 

 respect the fig does not greatly differ from the vine, though it will thrive with less air 

 than any other fruit-tree." {Diet, in loco.) In summer, as the fruit advances, water 

 even in that part of the border which is without the house. Refrain from watering over 

 the leaves and fruit, when the latter begin to ripen. {G. Rein. 192.) 



3157. Insects. Very much pains, Nicol observes, should be taken to suppress the red 

 spider on the foliage of figs ; whether by the engine, syringe, or by frequently brushing with 

 a painter's sash-tool, the under sides of the leaves, " in order to destroy his webs, which 

 are there thickly woven." Few other insects annoy the fig, except sometimes the coccus 



O o 4 



