762 



PRACTICE OF GARDENING. 



Part III. 



year, one spring shoot, at least, at its extremity, whilst another will rise from each eye of the remnants 

 of the old spring shoots that had been preserved in the manner above described, when these shoots 

 were broken, in the preceding month of June. From this fresh supply, by pursumg the system here ex- 

 plained, either wood or fruit, or both, may be obtained for the succeeding year, at the discretion of the 

 gardener. Where he wishes for wood, he must suffer these new shoots to grow to their full length : where 

 fruit, and not wood, is desired, he must break them in the month of June, in the manner and with the 

 precautions that have been minutely explained. {Hort. Trans, vol. iii. 74. et seq.) 



4859. Knight disapproves highly of training the branches of fig-trees perpendicularly, as encouraging 

 too much the prolongation of the shoots ; he approves of Wickham's mode in warm situations, but in 

 high cold situations, he radiates his branches from the top, and parts near it, of a single stem. He says, 

 " Let the s^ems, if there be, as usual, many within a narrow space, be gradually reduced to one only ; 

 and from the top, and parts near it, of this, let lateral branches be trained horizontally and pendently, in 

 close contact vi^ith the wall. Under such treatment, all troublesome luxuriance of growth will soon dis- 

 appear ; the pendent shoots will not annually extend more than a few inches, and few or no more leaves 

 will be produced than those which the buds contain before they unfold. The young wood consequently 

 ceases to elongate very early in the season, and thence acquires perfect maturity ; and by being trained 

 close to the wall, is placed secure, or nearlv so, from injury by the severest frost. The quantity of mature 

 and productive young wood thus necessarily become very great, relatively to the size of the tree : and the 

 fruit being in contact with the wall, and not shaded by excess of foliage, acquires an early and perfect ma- 

 turitv." {Hort. Trans, vol. iii. 307.) 



4860. The Rev. G. Swayne, from the various papers on the culture of the fig-tree, published in the Horti- 

 cultural Transactions, but particularly from that of Wickham, infers, " that the principal defect requiring 

 a remedy is a deficiency of fruitlings, or bloom, in the early spring, on the whole of the last year's shoots, 

 excepting on the few joints at their extremities," and he describes a remedy which he has for a long time 

 been in the habit of using, and which he " considers as a specific." It is simply to rub off, as soon as they 

 can be discovered by the naked eye, all the figs which are produced after midsummer on the same year's 

 shoots. The object is not only to prevent those figs which would never ripen without artificial heat to 

 exhaust the tree, but to give it sufficient time to employ the strength which would have been employed 

 in nourishing these " sterilising incumbrances," in the seasonable preparation of new embryo figs for the 

 foUov/ing year. " If this operation," he says, " be performed in due time, it will not fail to prepare on 

 one, and often on both sides, of almost every fig so displaced, such embryos. For this purpose, the trees 

 should be examined once a-week, from the beginning of August, at which time the figs of this second 

 crop usually begin to show themselves, and this examination must be repeated as long as any of these 

 make their appearance." Most gardeners, he says, omit removing these late figs at all, or delay the 

 practice till October or November, when no benefit is derived from it. He trains the trees horizontally, 

 and does not prune them till late in the spring, when he can plainly distinguisli between a leaf and a fruit- 

 bud, as well as appreciate the whole of the mischief occasioned by the frosts of the preceding winter. {Hort. 

 Trans, \o\.i\. 430.) The above practice, in connection with the mode of training recommended by 

 Knight, would, we think, effect an important improvement in the culture of this fruit. Wickham's 

 mode appears to excite too much the powers of the tree ; and the common mode of fan-training from three 

 or four root-stems, which are in fact so many suckers, is only calculated to produce wood and leaves. 

 Training the fig-tree on walls, as a rider, and in the stellate manner {Jig. 386. c), and pinching off all the 

 embryo fruit after midsummer, would probably effect every thing that can be desired in the culture of 

 this tree on the open wall in this country. 



4861. Protecting during winter. Tlais is found necessary in many parts of France, 

 and every where in Britain. Miller recommends tying together the branches of stand- 

 ards, and applying pease-haulm, strav', or any other light covering ; rolls of reeds to be 

 placed on each side of espaliers, removing these coverings in mild weather, to prevent the 

 figs from coming out too early. Forsyth covers fig-trees against walls with " laurel, yew, 

 fir, or spruce boughs," and then " tucks in short grass or moss among the branches." 

 Smith covers with spruce fir branches, from three to six feet long, fastening them to the 

 wall by the middle rib of the branches, at two different places. " To prevent any friction 

 by the wind, the branches should be made to fit each other, tr-at the covering may be of a 

 regular thickness over every part of the trees. As the covering is generally put on the 

 trees in the month of December, the branches remain green all the winter ; and in the 

 month of March, when the days get long, the leaves begin to drop from the branches, and 

 continue falling through April; and by the beginning of May, when the covering is en- 

 tirely removed, only the ribs of the branches are found remaining. Thus, the progress of 

 the season reduces the coverings in a gradual manner, so as not to expose the trees to any 

 sudden check, which might otherwise be the case, if they were all at once laid open to the 

 weather." 



4862. Sawyer, in November, detaches the branches of his fig-trees from the walls, picks off all the autumnal 

 fruit that are larger than a filbert, or not of a dark shining green : he then ties the branches of the tree 

 together in bundles forming a sort of cones, filling the interstices with dry hay, and wrapping mats round 

 the whole. After this he lowers the cones to the right and left, and makes them fast to the wall with rope- 

 yarn. In this state they remain till March, when the whole is undone, and the branches replaced and 

 covered first with treble, then double, and lastly single netting, which last is removed in May. 



4863. Mean {Hoi't. Trans, vol. ii.) adopted the French mode of burying the branches in the soil, in 1789, 

 and has practised it with success ever since. 



4864. Wickham observes {Hort. Trans, iii. 80.), in respect to covering fig-trees, that " much must be left 

 to the care and skill of the gardener, whose precautions must be determined, as well as varied, by the situ- 

 ation, aspect, and local shelter belonging to each particular tree, and by the varying temperature of each 

 particular winter ; it may, however, be laid down as a general rule, that the covering, where used, should 

 be as thin and light as a due consideration of all the above circumstances will admit, and that it should 

 generally be removed in the day-time, and always on the return of moderate weather." 



4865. Ripening the fruit. Williams suggests that the practice of taking off a circular ring of bark from 

 the lower part of the branches of the fig, in the manner he has so successfully practised on the vine, 

 might accelerate the maturity of the fruit. Monck tried ringing, and found that it may be practised 

 on the fig-tree with " as much safety, and more effect upon the age of its fruit than on the pear-tree." 

 (Hort. Trans, v. 172.) A very general French practice is to prick the fruit with a .straw or quill dipped in 

 olive-oil. In Italy, a wound with a knife is sometimes made on the broad end of the fig, or a very small 

 part of the skin of the fruit removed for the same purpose. Brandy is also sometimes applied, either by a 

 puncture on the side of the fruit with a bodkin dipped in the spirit, or by dropping a small q'uantity in the 

 eye of the fruit. " Plums and pears," Tournefort observes {Travels, letter viii.), " pricked by insects, 

 ripen the faster for it, and the flesh round such puncture is better tasted than the rest. It is not to be dis- 



