556 



FRUIT GARDEN. 



with glass sashes. Many extraordinary means 

 have been adopted to effect this, and merit our 

 notice more to point out their absurdity than 

 their utility. Of these the process of cap- 

 rification, as long practised in the Levant and 

 other fig-growing countries, is the chief. It con- 

 sists of collecting the spring figs in which a 

 species of gnat has already deposited its eggs, 

 and these figs are placed upon the trees so that 

 when the gnats are hatched they in their turn 

 deposit their eggs in the figs constituting the 

 autumn crop, effecting, as it is asserted, the 

 process of fecundation in the flowers within the 

 fruit during their passage to the centre of the 

 fig. Ringing the branches was recommended 

 by Sir Charles Monck ; and the same intelligent 

 and ardent horticulturist found, by splitting a 

 fig from end to end, that it ripened six weeks 

 before others that were left untouched. In 

 Italy the fruit is often wounded with a knife to 

 produce a similar effect; and in the same country 

 a drop of brandy or other spirits is let fall into 

 the eye of the fruit, while at other times a bod- 

 kin dipped in spirits is thrust into the side of the 

 fig. At Argenteuil in France women are some- 

 times employed in dropping oil into the eye of 

 the fig, which they adroitly do with a piece of hol- 

 low rye-straw, dipping it into the oil and forcing 

 it into the eye of the fruit alternately. These 

 absurdities merited the rebuke of M. Olivier, 

 who said of them that it was " a tribute which 

 man pays to ignorance and prejudice." 



That mutilation brings on a sort of ripeness 

 in fruits is undeniable, but the flavour and 

 quality are lessened in proportion. Touching 

 the eye of the fruit with a drop of sweet oil is 

 the least objectionable of the means employed. 

 In our own practice, however, we have not 

 found the ripening sensibly affected. The late 

 Mr Downing thought otherwise, and says, " In 

 an unfavourable soil and climate the ripening of 

 the fig is undoubtedly rendered more cei'tain 

 and speedy by touching the eye of the fruit 

 with a little oil. We have ourselves," he says, 

 " frequently tried the experiment of touching 

 the end of the fig with the finger dipped in oil, 

 and have always found the fruits so treated to 

 ripen much more certainly and speedily, and 

 swell to a larger size, than those left untouched." 



Forcing. — The fig submits with greater im- 

 punity to earlier excitement than either the 

 peach or the vine. They admit of being forced 

 in pots or boxes, and indeed this appears to be 

 the preferable way. Plants for this purpose 

 should be low and bushy, having the wood per- 

 fectly ripened and short-jointed. At two years 

 from being taken from the parent plant (for figs 

 are in general propagated by laying, although 

 they succeed equally well by cuttings), if kept in 

 pots and abundantly supplied with air, light, and 

 water, in a glazed pit or house, they will be in fit 

 condition for forcing. In the south of England, 

 where the fig thrives so well in the open air, 

 the protection of glass during the plant's growth 

 is uncalled for, but in all situations where it 

 does not succeed as an open standard that pro- 

 tection is necessary. The Nerii and Lee's per- 

 petual are best adapted for forcing, on account 

 of their less luxuriant habits. There are other 



sorts, however, that are found to do well also. 

 Like all plants intended for early forcing, it is a 

 primary object to have the plants well rooted, 

 and their wood stored with a sufficiency of pro- 

 perly elaborated sap; and this can hardly be 

 expected unless the plants are grown in pots, 

 sufficiently stimulated, and reared in a fitting 

 temperature. Early in November (for earliest 

 crops) the plants should be examined to see 

 that all is right at their roots, and especially 

 that the drainage is complete : all that are defi- 

 cient in these points should be re-potted and 

 reserved for successional crops. If the pots are 

 full of healthy roots, we would not advise shift- 

 ing, but to remove them at once into a pit or 

 fig-house, and to arrange them so that their 

 shoots may be placed as near to the light as 

 possible. If a slight degree of bottom heat can 

 be applied to their roots, so as to place them in 

 a temperature from 5° to 10° greater than that of 

 the branches, it will be of great importance to 

 them. By putting the roots in action first, the 

 embryo fruit is greatly stimulated, and much 

 less likely to turn yellow and drop off, which 

 they are apt to do early in the season if this 

 want of stimulant be denied them. It is a good 

 practice to place them first in a pit, plunged in 

 leaves or other matter in a slight state of fer- 

 mentation, and when the fruit has shown itself 

 to remove them to the fig-house, where they 

 may enjoy a greater amount of air and light. 

 That a check, however, may not be felt, the 

 temperature of the fig-house should be kept 

 nearly at that point, whatever it may have 

 been, that the roots enjoyed while in their 

 plunged state. As the young leaves expand, 

 abundance of tepid water should be given 

 the roots, and syringing attended to at least 

 once a-day. The thrip and red-spider are griev- 

 ous enemies to the fig in high temperatures, 

 and their presence is invited when the atmo- 

 sphere is anything like dry. The fig is also 

 more likely to suffer from a deficiency of water 

 at the roots than by an excess of it in a forced 

 state, however different its condition may be 

 when growing in the open air. Large span- 

 roofed pits having a morning and afternoon 

 exposure, and where a humid and moderate 

 bottom-heat can be regularly maintained, are, 

 in our opinion, the best of all structures for the 

 extra early forcing of the fig. For principal 

 crops the plants may be of larger-growing sorts 

 than those named above, and they may also be 

 planted out in prepared borders, only so ar- 

 ranged that their roots are not allowed to ramble 

 at large in search of food. For to this they have 

 so great a predilection that they become gross 

 in habit, making long-jointed coarse wood in- 

 stead of moderately - sized shoots thickly set 

 with fruit-buds. Various means have been sug- 

 gested to check this over-luxuriance of habit, 

 among others that of chambering them in by 

 building walls closely jointed so as to form 

 compartments for the roots of each plant, vary- 

 ing, according to the sort, from 4 feet to 16 

 superficial feet each compartment — that is, sup- 

 posing them squares, from 2 to 4 feet on the 

 side each square, and from 2 to 2| feet in 

 depth, laying in a deep drainage of broken 



