THE FIG. 



553 



ing well, and it is much better to confine the 

 roots to a limited space, and to take them up 

 once in two or three years, reducing their 

 roots, and affording them fresh soil, than to 

 plant them in rich deep broad borders at 15 or 

 20 feet apart from each other. In the latter 

 way one-third of the space will be amply suffi- 

 cient. The fig succeeds better on low walls 

 than on high ones, the former being warmer, 

 and the mode of training more natural to it, 

 as the fig is naturally a low-spreading tree. In 

 all temperate climates exceeding the mean of 

 that of Edinburgh, the fig thrives upon walls, 

 and exceeding that of London as an open dwarf 

 standard. No doubt this fruit has and will 

 ripen in peculiar situations, where the mean 

 temperature may be somewhat under these 

 points, but not with the same certainty and 

 satisfaction. One of the best walls of figs we 

 know of in Scotland is that of Preston Hall, 

 400 feet above the sea, and a naturally cold 

 situation, but upon a dry subsoil. They ripen 

 also on walls one hundred, miles farther north, 

 clearly showing the natural advantages of cer- 

 tain localities, over which, apparently, neither 

 latitude nor altitude appear to have much influ- 

 ence ; for there are many situations near the 

 sea, and much farther south, where the fig 

 refuses to ripen as a standard, and seldom does 

 so even on walls ; while at New Tarbet, seven 

 hundred miles north of London, and exposed to 

 the blasts of the German Ocean, they ripen ad- 

 mirably on the open walls, as do also apricots, 

 almonds, mulberries, peaches, and many of the 

 finer pears. Vaulted borders will be found 

 exceedingly valuable for the fig, because they 

 secure dryness and increased heat at the roots 

 at the same time. 



Pruning and training. — The principal consi- 

 deration to be kept in view, before any system of 

 pruning or training be adopted, is to make our- 

 selves thoroughly acquainted with the mode of 

 bearing natural to the tree to be operated on. 

 A very excellent paper, by the Hon. William 

 Wickham, will be found in " The Transactions 

 of the Horticultural Society," in reference to 

 this subject. " The fig tree is distinguished from 

 most if not from all other trees by this extra- 

 ordinary property, that it bears, and in warm 

 climates brings to maturity, in every year, two 

 successive and distinct crops of fruit, each crop 

 being produced on a distinct set of shoots. The 

 shoots formed by the first or spring sap put 

 forth figs at every eye, as soon as the sap begins 

 to flow again in July and August. These figs (which 

 form the second crop of the year) ripen in their 

 native climate during the course of the autumn, 

 but rarely, if ever, come to perfection in England, 

 where, though they cover the branches in great 

 abundance at the end of that season, they perish 

 and fall off with the first severe frosts of winter. 

 The shoots formed by the second flow of sap, 

 commonly called midsummer shoots, put forth 

 figs in like manner at every eye, but not until 

 the first flow of sap in the following spring. 

 These last-mentioned figs, which form the first 

 crop of each year, ripen in warmer climates 

 during the months of June and July, but not in 

 this country before September or October. In 



warmer climates, indeed, very little attention is 

 given to this crop, because the midsummer 

 shoots, on which it is born, are commonly in 

 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 England 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." With the 

 view to increase the proportion which the mid- 

 summer shoots should bear to the spring shoots, 

 both in number and length, this intelligent 

 amateur cultivator purposed breaking off the 

 spring shoots, at the time they nearly attain 

 their full growth, about from 6 to 15 inches 

 from their base, according to their strength, 

 leaving enough of each shoot to admit of its 

 being bent back and fastened to the wall at the 

 ensuing winter pruning, taking care that one 

 eye at least be left uninjured, and besides leav- 

 ing a sufficient number of shoots unbroken, to 

 secure a supply of wood for the proper filling up 

 of the wall. These shoots should be broken off 

 and not cut; and it has even been found in 

 practice to be better, although less sightly, to 

 break them only partially at first, leaving them 

 slightly attached to the tree, and to cut them 

 off afterwards when the sap has ceased to flow. 

 The rationale of fracturing them, instead of cut- 

 ting them off at once with a knife, is, that they 

 would produce at their extremities only one 

 single midsummer shoot, whereas, if fractured, 

 it generally happens that, on the second flow of 

 the sap in July, two or three more shoots are 

 pushed from the fractured part instead of one, 

 and each of these, according to its length, will 

 produce several figs in the ensuing spring, and 

 their fruit is thus rendered capable of ripening 

 during our ordinary summer and autumn heats. 

 " A sufficient supply of midsummer shoots 

 being thus secured during the summer, room 

 must be made for them at the succeeding winter- 

 pruning, by cutting away as much of the old wood 

 as will admit of their being all trained in at full 

 length, and nailed close to the wall, which should 

 always be done before the first severe frosts. 

 Keeping this object in view, the knife cannot 

 well be used too freely in cutting away the old 

 wood, nor is there any reason to fear that its 

 free use will either injure the future crop, or 

 deprive the tree of its regular supply of branches. 

 The midsummer shoots being trained in, each 

 of them will produce, in the following year, one 

 spring shoot, at least, at its extremity, whilst 

 another will rise from each eye of the remnants 

 of the old spring shoots that had been preserved 

 in the manner above described, when these 

 shoots were broken in the preceding month of 

 June. From this fresh supply, by pursuing the 

 system here explained, either fruit, wood, or 

 both, may be obtained for the succeeding year, 

 at the discretion of the gardener. When he 

 wishes for wood, he must suffer these new 

 shoots to grow to their full length ; when fruit, 

 and not wood, is desired, he must break them 

 in the month of June, in the manner and with 

 the precautions that have been minutely ex- 

 plained."— Eort. Trans., vol. iii. p. 74, &c. 



