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XLIX. On the Management of Fig-trees in the open air. In 

 a Letter to the Secretary. By Mr. Samuel Sawyer, 

 Gardener to Isaac Lyon Goldsmid, Esq. F. H. S. 



Read February 4, 1823. 



Sir, 



I submit to the consideration of the Horticultural Society 

 the following account of my mode of managing Fig-trees in 

 the open air, with the names of the best sorts for cultivation, 

 so as to have a regular succession of fruit from August to Octo- 

 ber. I shall begin at the period when the trees are in an inac- 

 tive state, that is, in November, following the seasons round to 

 the next autumn. In the beginning of that month I detach the 

 whole of the branches from the walls, removing all the nails 

 and shreds, after which I carefully examine the autumnal 

 fruits, leaving on the branches all that have a firm skin and 

 are of a dark green colour, and that do not exceed the com- 

 mon Filbert in size. Those which are not of that description 

 I remove. I then draw into a sort of cone as many of the 

 branches as are contiguous to each other, and tie them to- 

 gether, filling all the vacant spaces between the branches in 

 these cones, with short, dry, and clean hay, and roll double 

 mats over the whole, being particularly careful to guard the 

 extremity of the branches from the inclemency of the winter's 

 frost. I then lower the whole of the cones either to the right 

 or left, as may be convenient, in such a manner that the tops 

 of each may be at least two feet below the top of the wall, 



