Book I. 



FIG. 



761 



4850. By grafting. This mode can only be advantageously adopted in cases similar to those recom- 

 mended for grafting the vine. (4813.) The process by any of the modes readily succeeds, and we have 

 seen in Italy above a dozen sorts of figs on one tree. 



4851. Culture. - Foi the culture of the fig in the Forcing Department, see Chap. VII. 

 Sect. V, In the open air, the plants are grown as standards, espaliers, and against walls ; 

 but, as already observed, the fruit produced in any of these situations is of very inferior 

 flavor to that grown under glass. A crop of figs, Miller observes, is generally more 

 uncertain than that of any other fruit : and Neill says, Britain is certainly not the 

 country for figs. From the attention now paid to this fruit, however, by some eminent 

 horticulturists, we may hope for improvement, and, at any rate, for a more general taste 

 for the fruit. 



4852. Soil. The fig-tree thrives in all soils not wet at bottom ; but they produce a greater quantity of 

 fruit upon a strong loamy soil than on dry sandy ground, a dry soil being apt to make them cast their 

 fruit. Miller says, " I have always observed those fig-trees to bear the greatest quantity of well flavored 

 fruit which were growing upon chalky land, where there has been a foot or more of a gentle loamy soil on 

 the top. They also love a free open air ; for although they will shoot and thrive very well in close places, 

 yet they seldom produce any fruit in such situations." Smith {Caled. Hort. Mem. vol. ii.), after trying 

 several soils, found the fig-tree thrive best in a rich friable loam, free from latent water at bottom. 



4853. Groiving the fig as standards. In fig-countries, this tree is always grown as a standard ; and 

 here dwarf standards, planted in very warm situations, will, in very favorable seasons, afford tolerable 

 crops of fruit. Some of the best in England are at Arundel Castle ; and there is a fig-orchard of 100 trees 

 at Tarring, and another of 14 at Tempting, near Worthing. {Hort. Trans, vol. iv. 505.) Tliose at Arun- 

 del are planted six or eight feet apart, and from a single stem allowed to continue branching into regular 

 conical heads ; pruning chiefly irregular and redundant growths, and cutting out decayed or injured wood. 

 Miller says, standard fig-trees, when protected during winter, generally bear better than those against 

 walls ; which, however, may be considered as in great part owing to the mode of training and pruning figs 

 in the latter situation not having then been generally understood. At Argenteuil, where the fig is culti- 

 vated in immense quantities for the supply of the table, the plants are grown as dwarf standards ; and the 

 chief part of their culture, Bosc observes, consists in keeping their branches short, low, and spreading, to 

 enjoy both the heat of the sun and reflection of the earth. The ground is manured occasionally, and 

 stirred at least once a-year ; and for protection from the frost during the winter, the circumferential low 

 branches are buried six inches in the soil, and the central ones enveloped in litter. 



4854. On espaliers. Where figs will succeed as standards, they will also thrive against espalier-rails ; 

 in which situation they admit of being more readily covered or protected during winter. The plants may 

 be placed at ten or twelve feet distance, and trained in the fan or horizontal manner. 



4855. On walls. This is unquestionably the best mode for our climate, as it admits of more reridily pro- 

 tecting the plants during winter, and is more likely to bring the fruit to maturity in the summer or 

 autumn. The distances at which the plants are placed will depend on the height of the wall. In general, 

 a low wall is to be preferred, both because the fig is naturally adapted for being kept low, and because, 

 when low, it admits more readily of protection. The plants may be placed from fifteen to twenty feet 

 apart, with temporary trees of the fig, peach, or any other fruit between. 



4856. Mode of bearing. " The fig-tree," the Hon. W. Wickham observes, " is distinguished from most, 

 if not from all, other trees, by this extraordinary property, that it bears, and, in warmer climates, brings 

 to maturity, in every year, two successive and distinct crops of fruit, each crop being produced on a dis- 

 tinct set of shoots. The shoots, formed by the first or spring sap, put forth figs at every ej^e, as soon as 

 the sap begins to flow again in July and August. These figs (which form the second crop of the year,) 

 ripen, in their native climate, during the course of the autumn ; but rarely, if ever, come to perfection in 

 England, where, though they cover the branches in great abundance, at the end of that season, they 

 perish, and fall off, with the fiist severe frosts of winter. The shoots, formed by the second flow of sap, 

 commonly called midsummer shoots, put forth figs in like manner at every eye, but not until the first 

 flow of sap in the following spring. These last mentioned figs, which form the first crop of each year, 

 ripen, in warmer climates, during the months of June and July, but not in this country before September 

 or October. In warmer climates, indeed, very little attention is given to this first crop, because the mid- 

 summer shoots, on which it is borne, are commonly in the proportion only of one to six or eight in length, 

 when compared with the shoots of the spring, which produce the second crop ; and the crop itself is 

 always small, in the same proportion. But in England, it is the reverse. As no care or skill of the gar- 

 dener can ever ensure a second crop of ripe figs in the open air." 



4857. Pruning and training. Most gardeners. Miller observes, imagine that fig-trees should never 

 have much pruning ; or, at least, that they should always be suffered to grow very rude from the wall to 

 some distance. A pruned fig-tree never bears, is a common saying, nor, according to Wickham, can its 

 truth be denied, when applied to the most common method of pruning these trees, i. e. by cutting away or 

 shortening the last year's shoots, instead of cutting away old wood, and training those shoots to the wall 

 in its place. =r - - 



4858. Wickham recommends a system of pruning which may increase the proportion which the midsummer 

 shoots (the only ones, as stated aliove, which produce fruit that ripens in this country,) bear to the spring 

 shoots, both in number and length. For this purpose, he breaks off" the spring shoots as they nearly 

 attain their full growth, and just as the spring sap in each begins to abate something of its full vigor. He 

 breaks them at moderate distances (six to fifteen inches, according to the strength of each shoot), from 

 the place whence they severally spring, taking care that enough of the shoot be left to admit of its being 

 bent back, and nailed close to the wall at the ensuing winter pruning, and that one eye, at least, be left 

 uninjured by the fracture, and always preserving a quantity unbroken, sufficient to keep up a future 

 supply of branches and wood. The shoot may be either broken short off", or left suspended by a few ragged 

 filaments, which may afterwards be separated with a knife, when the spring sap has ceased to flow. The 

 former mode is less unsightly, and will therefore be generally preferred by the gardener; but the latter 

 has been found more successful in practice. It is of consequence, however, to the full success of this sys- 

 tem, that the shoots should be broken and not cut. If left to their natural growth, or shortened by 

 a sharp smooth cut with a knife (instead of a fracture), they would produce, at their extremities, only 

 one single midsummer shoot, being a simple prolongation of the wood, formed in the spring; but 

 when the shoot is broken at the time, and in the manner above described, it generally happens that, on 

 the second flow of sap in July, two or three more shoots (forming a kind of stag's horn) are pushed from 

 the fractured part instead of one ; and it is hardly necessary to add, that each of these, according to 

 its length, will produce several figs in the ensuing spring, (making the first crop of that fruit,) all of them 

 capable of being ripened by our ordinary summer and autumn heats. A sufficient supply of midsummer 

 shoots being thus procured during the summer, room must be made for them at the succeeding winter prun- 

 ing, by cutting away so much of the old wood as will admit of their being all trained in, at full length, 

 and nailed close to "the wall, which should always be done before the first severe frosts. Keeping this 

 object in view, the knife cannot well be used "too freely in cutting away the old wood, nor is there 

 any reason to fear that its free use will either injure the future crops, or deprive the tree of its regular 

 sui)()ly of branches. The midsummer shoots being trained in, each of them will produce, in the following 



