396 Upon the Cultivation of the Fig Tree, 



These stones, being checked to receive the bricks, bound the thin 

 wall of facing bricks to the back part of the wall, which was of stone- 

 work : but as so thin a facing to the ranges of flue would not well 

 admit the use of nails in securing the trained branches of the trees, 

 nor perhaps would the branches bear to be affixed so close to a 

 wall through which the heat should pass so freely, I procured cast 

 iron eyes of three-quarters of inch capacity, with shanks of six 

 inches long, and caused the shanks to be sunk in the under side of 

 the soles above-mentioned, so that when the wall was built, the eyes 

 appeared in horizontal rows at one foot distance from each other, 

 projecting out between the courses of fire-stone covers and soles : 

 through these eyes rounded oak rods, as long as the wall is high, 

 were drawn perpendicularly, and to these, or to willow sticks fas- 

 tened to them, as occasion required, the branches were made fast 

 by bandages of willow, cord, or bass. 



My gardener wrote me word this spring, whilst I was absent in 

 London, that the trees had put forth only a scanty crop of spring 

 figs. I returned him direction to water the borders freely, and force 

 with a strong heat ; and that when the trees in consequence should 

 have broken out into rapid growth, he should stop the shoots at the 

 seventh or eighth eye. In about a months time after this he sent 

 me word that the trees had begun to produce an abundant crop of 

 figs from the eyes of the new wood which had been stopped. Five 

 or six weeks subsequently I returned home, and found the trees in 

 luxuriant growth ; but most of the fruit on the stopped wood was 

 turning yellow ; some had dropped, and much more of it was nearly 

 ready to drop. On consideration of what might be the cause of 

 this disappointment, it appeared to me that the high temperature, 

 with a plentiful watering and rich soil, had excited a luxuriant 

 growth of wood, to which the sap had been diverted, and the fruit in 

 consequence was starving. To remedy this, I directed all the fruitful 

 branches to be ringed. In five or six days after this had been done, it 



