228 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



Fig. 76, p. 326, Vol. III., will be of great service 

 when the fruit is ripe, and a constant circulation of 

 dry, warm air is absolutely necessary. Although the 

 trees will stand a great amount of dry sun-heat 

 after the wood is ripe, and fixed roofs are not 

 injurious, portable lights running in rafters are to be 

 preferred both for benefit, convenience, and appear- 

 ance. It is easy to imagine a tree started in 

 December, and ripening its wood in July, with 

 its foliage at all times subjeet to spider, cut off from 

 the refreshing dew and summer rain, and then to 

 turn to another from which a great portion of 

 the lights can be removed 

 in a few minutes when warm 

 showers are falling through 

 August and September, and 

 to arrive at the conclusion 

 that the sash and rafter roof 

 is to be preferred. 



The unequal span-roofed 

 house, with its longest slope 

 facing the south, is well 

 adapted for the extension 

 training of trees, which may 

 be planted on the north side 

 in a narrow border, and 

 nailed to the back wall until 

 the shoots reach the roof, 

 where they take to the trellis 

 leading to the ridge, thence 

 downwards to the front, the 

 check to the sap at the 

 apex of the trellis produc- 

 ing a most fruitful growth 

 of young spur-like pieces 

 of wood, which require 

 very little pinching, and, as 

 perpetual-bearing. During 

 are covering the south trellis, the front pit is a 

 suitable place for pot-trees, which can be plunged or 

 placed on the surface of the bed, where, if allowed 

 to root through the bottoms of the pots into sods of 

 turf, such kinds as Brown Turkey, and Osborne's 

 Prolific, produce quantities of fruit throughout the 

 season. A house of this kind was planted at 

 Eastnor twenty years ago ; the main stems have now 

 covered the back wall with roots, where they are 

 regularly supplied with diluted liquid, and the crops 

 of fine large Figs are enormous. The trellis has 

 long since been covered, and the pruning consists of 

 the entire removal of shoots that have reached the 

 extremity, to make room for others that are following 

 down. The latter never require stopping, but show 

 fruit at every leaf, and throw up plenty of spurs 

 from the two-year-old wood. These are thinned out, 

 and allowed to grow up towards the glass, where, 



Tig. 1.— "Wall Case. 



a consequence, become 

 the time the growths 



having plenty of lights and solar heat, they set 

 clusters of Figs. Attention is drawn to this novel 

 mode of management, to show the amateur that 

 thorough drainage, and a root temperature equal to 

 the mean of the house, are of more importance 

 than deep, rich beds of compost. A large span- 

 roofed house is a most excellent structure for 

 large, strong-growing kinds, including the gar- 

 dener's sheet anchor, Brown Turkey, which stands 

 as supremely at the head of the Fig family as the 

 Hamburgh does at the head of Grapes. No one 

 tires of it, and no collection of Figs is complete 

 without it. In this house 

 the borders should be raised 

 above the ground-line ; the 

 passage along the centre 

 being formed by dwarf 

 walls. The latter, how- 

 ever, are not really neces- 

 sary to the well-doing of 

 the roots, as retaining walls 

 of turf some distance away 

 from the brickwork answer 

 better. Moreover, the turf 

 being warm and elastic, the 

 roots remain more healthy, 

 and take more food in a 

 liquid form than can be 

 given, or assimilated, when 

 the compost is wedged in 

 between two brick walls. 

 "When light houses like this 

 are glazed with large squares 

 of 21 -ounce glass closely 

 lapped, the trellis should be 

 from twenty to twenty-four 

 inches below it, and ventilation on a very liberal 

 scale is imperative. 



The Wall Case (Fig. 1). — In cold localities un- 

 favourable to the outdoor culture of Figs, this is an 

 inexpensive and a very useful structure, inasmuch as 

 it can be furnished with a row of pot-trees along the 

 front, consisting of kinds which will hereafter be 

 recommended for that purpose. In many gardens 

 good walls, forming sunny, sheltered angles, are 

 frequently met with ready furnished with trees, 

 from which the crops of fruit are very partial, if not 

 a complete failure. These it is unnecessary to 

 destroy, as the front of a wall case can be set on 

 piers, when by judicious root-pruning and improved 

 management, the oldest trees can be speedily brought 

 into a fruitful state. But in the event of the wall 

 having to be planted after the house is built, then the 

 most approved kinds should be selected for train- 

 ing horizontally on a wire trellis placed close to 

 thft brickwork. When judiciously managed, it is 



