166 



FIG CULTURE 



vantages suggest themselves. It is as essential to 

 maintain friable, moisture-holding, humus-forming 

 texture as to plant healthy trees, these considera- 

 tions applying in fig culture with peculiar force. 



There are dangers from cover cropping, such as 

 the consumption of moisture and plant food at times 

 when needed by the trees ; but these are avoided, in 

 cool climates, by planting in the late summer and 

 fall, and, in the South, during the fall and winter. 

 Thus trees are furnished all the moisture <md 

 fertility of the land during the season of strong 

 growth while the late crops restore that which has 

 been consumed in time for the next season's use. 

 This system is an adoption of Dame Nature's meth- 

 ods. Were it not for the fertility from decaying 

 grasses and leaves deep rooted vegetation would not 

 only find sterile ground for falling seeds, but the 

 chief source of its own vitality would be lacking, 

 all virgin growth rapidly disappearing. Cover 

 cropping is an improvement of natural methods 

 which sustain plant life in the wild, and, having 

 prevailed since the beginning of floral growth, it 

 has been the largest factor in a slow evolution of un- 

 cultivated vegetable species. 



It is difficult to find sound objections to the use 

 of cover crops; if not grown during seasons when 

 trees need all the soil food results are entirely bene- 

 ficial. In floral history lichen preceded grass, grass 

 prepared the ground for deeper growing plants, 



