NEIGHBOURHOOD OF PARIS. 



397 



about two centuries ago. It is cultivated in orcliards in 

 deeply dug and richly manured land^ tlie soil of which is of a 

 siliceous, calcareous, and clayey nature, well sheltered from 

 , the north and north-west winds, and open to the south and 

 east. The cultivation of the Fig extends over a space of 

 130 acres, the production being somewhere about 400,000 

 figs per annum. The variety grown in this locality is the 

 Blanquette or white Courcourelle, and the method of grow- 

 ing it is as follows : — 



Layers raised in baskets or in the ordinary way are 

 planted in the month of March in holes about four feet 



Fig. 212. 



Eig Tree growing on level ground. 



six inches in diameter, and one foot eight inches deep, filled 

 with well manured mould. The planting is performed in 

 such a way that the roots of the layer are buried from ten 

 inches to one foot deep, and that the stem which springs out 

 of the earth in an oblique direction should be covered with 

 from three to four inches of earth. To form the stool 

 more quickly two layers may be planted in the same hole 

 instead of only one. In this case the two layers are placed 

 in lines parallel to those of the plantation at eight inches^ 

 distance from each other, and in such a way that the stems 

 are opposed to each other in the direction of this line. 



