[ 365 3 



XXXII. Account of a M etkod of Forcing Figs, practised in 

 the Garden of the Earl of Hare wood, F. H. S. at Hare- 

 wood House in Yorkshire. By Joseph Sabine, Esq. 

 F.R.S., $c. Secretary. 



Read February 7, 1826. 



Wit h the assistance of Mr. Robert Chapman, the intelli- 

 gent and skilful Gardener at Harewood House, I am enabled 

 to lay before the Horticultural Society the following details 

 of the Cultivation of the Fig in pots under glass, which has 

 been successfully practised by him for the last thirty years 

 in the Garden under his charge. 



The pots, after the trees have perfected their crop in the 

 autumn, and have dropped their leaves, are plunged in the 

 earth in a fruiting house, where they are protected through 

 the winter from severe frosts, and kept dry. In this state 

 they remain until the time of forcing them arrives : this is 

 the beginning of January. The trees are then taken out 

 of the pots, all the younger roots are cut off with a sharp 

 knife, so as to leave a ball of earth of a foot or fifteen inches 

 diameter, according to the strength of the plant, round the 

 older roots, and the outer mould is renewed, the plant being 

 repotted in rich sandy loam. The pots used are large, and 

 in proportion to the strength of the plant, the usual size 

 being fourteen inches deep, and from twenty-two to twenty- 

 four inches wide at top. A bed composed of horse manure, 

 and oak or beech leaves mixed together, four feet broad, 



vol. vi. 3 B 



