232 



CASSELL'S POPULAR GARDENING. 



base will form a new leader. Turn the plants out 

 of the pots, and wash the roots clear of crocks and 

 soil ; carefully uncoil them, and shorten hack the 

 strongest, then remove any buds that may have 

 formed at the base of the stem, and place the 

 tree in position, spread out the roots horizontally, 

 and cover with three inches of the compost. As 

 newly-made borders always settle a little, no matter 

 how firmly they are made, any attempt at tying-in 

 would strangle the roots, therefore the shoots should 

 be loosely slung to the wires until the time arrives 

 for training. When all the trees are planted, give a 

 little tepid water to settle the soil closely about the 

 delicate fibres, and syringe every day to feed the buds 

 during the time new 

 spongioles are forming. 



The distance the 

 trees should be planted 

 from each other must, 

 as a matter of course, 

 be regulated by the dis- 

 tance at which the 

 brick divisions are built 

 across the border, and 

 the mode of training. 

 If the houses are thirty 

 to thirty - six feet in 

 length, the lean-to would 

 require three trees ten 

 to twelve feet apart, 

 and the span-roof would 

 take double that num- 

 ber —three on each side. 

 It is a great mistake 



to crowd Eig-trees, and to have to cut them before 

 they have grown themselves into a thoroughly 

 fruitful condition, as the use of the knife only 

 induces a stronger growth. Neither is it advisable 

 to plant supernumeraries ; the time and space devoted 

 to such might be much better employed on pot-trees, 

 which would be portable and more profitable. The 

 young stock from eyes, or cuttings, grow rapidly 

 into pyramids for the back rows, and bushes for the 

 front, wherever there is room for a pot-plant to stand 

 without being shaded by the advancing permanent 

 trees, and as these can be fruited the second year 

 they are in every way preferable to supernumeraries. 



Training. — As successful culture depends upon 

 keeping the tree in a firm, short- jointed, sturdy kind 

 of growth, a system of training that will secure this 

 should be adopted. The old school allowed their 

 trees to grow almost wild, the modern Eig-grower 

 works upon a system, and keeps them well furnished, 

 but not crowded, with young fruitful wood, by 

 allowing the leading shoots to extend until they 

 reach the extremity of the trellis, when they are cut 



Fig. 4.— Stopping 



out to make room for others that are following ; by 

 judicious pinching up to July, not later; and by 

 shortening back a portion of the ripe wood at the 

 winter pruning, where there is likely to be a dearth 

 of young growths in the following season. 



The young tree (Eig. 4) can be trained hori- 

 zontally or obliquely, the growths that emanate 

 from the main shoots being pinched at the fifth or 

 sixth leaf, where they show an inclination to con- 

 tinue growing ; not otherwise, as short stubby pieces 

 with a good terminal bud are always most fruitful. 

 Hence the advice to give up pinching after the 

 middle of July, as every shoot that is pinched should 

 make and ripen a fresh break with a good bud 

 before the tree goes to 

 rest. 



A medium course cf 

 training, stopping, and 

 pruning will be found 

 the best by all who have 

 not had great experience 

 in the management and 

 manipulation of the ir- 

 repressible Fig. In 

 order to secure a good 

 foundation to the young 

 tree now commencing 

 its first year's growth 

 on the trellis, the leader 

 should be pinched at 

 every fifteen inches 

 throughout the sum- 

 mer, and the main side 

 shoots as often as may 

 be found necessary to induce the back buds to break 

 into laterals. Some prefer keeping all their laterals 

 on the upper side of the branches, and tying to the 

 wire above ; others tie them in on both sides, above 

 and below. In my own management a downward 

 tendency answers best for all free growths, and a 

 right-angled growth towards the glass for short, 

 spur-like pieces, which always set a cluster of young 

 fruit, and revel in the roasting of the August sun. 



If all has gone well until the end of the season, 

 the young tree, under ordinary Vinery treatment as 

 to heat and moisture, will have covered some six feet 

 of the trellis, and will represent a series of young 

 branches, well furnished with shoots that have been 

 tied in, and pinched at the fifth or sixth leaf, where 

 necessary, to keep them within bounds. No fruit 

 will have been ripened, but every lateral will be set 

 with embryo Figs, ready to swell away in the 

 following spring. Therefore, in order to prevent 

 these from getting too forward before the leaves fall, 

 the syringing should be reduced, and the temperature 

 lowered, in time for the wood to be thoroughly ripe 



