168 



FIG CULTURE 



weeds and shrubs each in turn making possible the 

 formation of larger root systems further below the 

 surface. The modern farmer returns to this process 

 when plowing under a crop of green manure, there 

 being, however, this difference: in two or three 

 years he thus restores a worn out soil, while nat- 

 ural processes occupied centuries of slow improve- 

 ment to obtain less definite results. He does little 

 more than nature accomplished, except by better 

 methods. When moss decays in spring one crop is 

 converted into another; and when stable manure 

 is incorporated in the ground a crop is transferred 

 by the process to different parts of the farm, stock 

 having wasted some and utilized a small quantity 

 in making animal tissue ; and in applying commer- 

 cial fertilizers the fertility of other fields is simply 

 concentrated in one's own. 



These crops are as useful for fig trees as for any 

 other plants. Their wood is large celled and suc- 

 culent, the roots making probably twenty-five times 

 the quantity of ordinary fruit trees in the same 

 length of time. To supply this material, soil should 

 not only be well drained and renovated, but the or- 

 ganic matter should be maintained copiously with 

 abundant nitrogenous food. Fertility is not only 

 obtained economically from green manure, but the 

 land is left more friable and open for root develop- 

 ment by the fining of soil particles. Roots produce 

 top growth, furnish fruit, make incomes, result in 



