486 



FORCING THE FIG IN BRITISH GARDENS. 



from six inches to a foot farther from the glass. The soil of the border 

 should be light, sandy, and thoroughly drained. 



1032. The varieties best adapted for forcing are Pregussata, Figue blanche, 

 or White Marseilles, and Brown Turkey, or Ashridge forcing, to which 

 may be added the Nerii, which, it is said, requires less heat than the 

 other varieties. The plants may be trained in the fan manner, and 

 the mode of pruning should be such as to favour the production of 

 young wood over every part of the tree. For this purpose a portion 

 of the old wood requires to be cut out every year, from those parts 

 of the tree where young wood has ceased to be produced freely ; and 

 as this is seldom the case at any great distance from the root, most 

 old fig-trees consist of a number of main branches proceeding direct 

 from the root in the manner of suckers. Very little pruning is required for 

 the fig ; but by pinching out the points of ^ the shoots after the fruit appears, 

 its progress is hastened, and the chance of its setting increased. The fruit is 

 very apt to become yellow, and drop off before it is fully swelled ; but this, 

 it has been found by Sir Charles Monck {^Hort. Trans.^ vol. i., second series, 

 p. 39.5), may be prevented by taking off a ring of bark immediately behind 

 the fruit. By attending to this practice when it becomes necessary, the fig. 

 Sir Charles Monck observes, may be forced to produce abundant crops of 

 fruit, and bring them to perfect maturity. 



1033. The time of beginning to force the fig is commonly the same as that 

 for forcing the grape or the peach, and the temperature is also much the 

 same as that for the vine, or somewhat intermediate between it and 

 the peach. The apricot, peach, plum, and cherry vegetate in March or 

 the beginning of April ; but the vine and the fig require the temperature of 

 May to bring them into vegetation even when growing against a south wall. 

 Hence, when forced, they require a proportionately higher temperature to 

 bring them into leaf. 



The first crop of figs, which is that produced on the points of the 

 shoots of the last year, will ripen in May or June; but the second 

 crop will not ripen before September, though, as it does not ripen all at 

 once, it will last till December. The only difficult point in forcing the 

 fig is to preserve the embryo fruit formed on the points of the shoots of 

 the current year, so as that they may ripen as a first crop in the next year. 

 The fig will thrive at a greater distance from the glass than either the vine 

 or the peach, and also, according to Miller, with less air than any other fruit- 

 tree. It is very subject to the red spider, which should be kept under 

 by watering copiously over the leaves ; or, if that is not sufficient, by 

 washing the flues or hot- water pipes with a mixture of flowers of sulphur 

 and lime. 



1034. The forcing of fig trees in pots is perhaps the best mode, at least 

 for small establishments, because, by having an abundant stock of plants, 

 fruit may be obtained nine months in the year, as indeed it is at Preston- 

 hall, in East- Lothian, where forty varieties are cultivated under glass. 

 M'Phail says, figs may be ripened at an early season, by planting them in 

 pots, and setting them into a hot-house or forcing-house. " The plants 

 should be low and bushy, so that they may stand on the kerb of the tan-bed, 

 or they may be plunged in a gentle tan-heat, or in a bed of leaves of trees. 

 The best way to propagate plants for this purpose is to take layers or slips 

 which have good roots : plant them in pots in good earth, one plant in each 



