On the Culture of Fig Trees, in the open air. 75 



it is borne, are commonly in the proportion only of one to 

 six or eight, in length, when compared with the shoots of 

 the spring, which produce the second crop ; and the crop 

 itself is always small, in the same proportion. But in Eng- 

 land, it is the reverse. As no care or skill of the gardener 

 can ever insure a second crop of ripe figs, in the open air, 

 his chief attention must be directed to the first, and, conse- 

 quently, to the means of obtaining the largest possible supply 

 of midsummer shoots, being those, on which alone the first 

 crop is produced. Now, though it may be beyond the gar- 

 dener's skill to add to the positive length of the midsummer 

 shoots, on any given tree, yet, by a very simple process, he 

 may increase the proportion, which they bear to the spring 

 shoots, both in number and length. 



Suppose a fig tree trained,* as we often see them, at the 

 end of winter, and beginning of spring, on the walls of the 

 gardens and buildings, in the neighbourhood of London, i. e. 

 the branches, in great number, neatly arranged, close to each 

 other, the fore-right shoots pruned away, or cut very short, 

 and the extremities of the branches (when the space will 

 admit of it) preserved uncut, and nailed to the wall ; it is 

 obvious, from what has been already explained, respecting 

 the manner, in which the fig tree bears its fruit, that no figs 

 can be ripened, though many may be produced, on branches 

 so trained, except at their extremities ; because, when the 

 gardener shortened the foreright shoots of these branches, 

 at the winter pruning,-}- he necessarily cut away that part of 

 them, which had grown after midsummer, on which part 

 alone, a first crop of Figs, i. e. a crop capable of ripen- 

 ing in England, could have been produced. On the other 



* See Note B. f See Note C. 



