By Thomas Andrew Knight, Esq. 309 



and the fruit being in contact with the wall, and not shaded 

 by excess of foliage, acquires an early and perfect maturity. 

 In some experiments which I made last year, and to which I 

 paid very close attention, I found that where I had trained 

 one branch of a Cherry-tree perpendicularly downwards, and 

 another upwards, the fruit ripened most early, and most 

 perfectly upon the pendant branches ; and as the branches 

 of the Fig-tree, in, I believe, all its varieties, grow more or 

 less pendant, it appears probable, though I have not attended 

 to this circumstance, that the Figs will ripen best upon pen- 

 dant branches. 



As the young wood, under the preceding mode of manage- 

 ment, ceases to grow early in the summer, and the sap con- 

 sequently ceases to flow so abundantly on the approach of 

 autumn, I think it extremely probable that the main stems 

 of the Fig-tree will be less subject to injury by frost : but if 

 these should require protection, it is obviously more easy to 

 defend one stem, than many. 



When small young Fig-trees are to be planted, I have 

 found much advantage in confining their roots in pots of 

 very rich mould ; for by these means their luxuriant growth 

 is checked, and early fruitfulness induced : and this habit, 

 when once acquired, will not, I believe, be lost, when the 

 roots are relieved from the constraint of the pots ; but I have 

 not yet witnessed the result of this experiment. 



