9 



NEIGHBOURHOOD OE PARIS. 



408 



Fig. 220. 



off as soon as it has attained the length of four or 

 five inches. As the process of forcing autumn figs 

 to ripen makes the trees weaker and less able to ]3roduce 

 the buds^ or " fig flowers/-' for the next year, only those 

 which are strong and vigorous shonld be chosen for the 

 purpose. 



Should the late frosts destroy the crop of figs, an 

 event which may take place before the middle of May, 

 summer pruning must be resorted 

 to, that is to say, each lateral 

 branch is pruned back to near 

 the stem. This operation causes 

 the sap to flow to the old wood 

 and produce a large crop of shoots. 

 This circumstance is taken advan- 

 tage of to fill up empty spaces, of 

 course taking care to leave only 

 those shoots growing that are 

 really useful. The shoots are 

 thinned out according to the me- 

 thod already described. 



After the figs are gathered, 

 each branch bearing fruit presents 

 the appearance shown in fig. 220, 



or that in fig. 221, if the shoots Brancli of Fig Tree after the 

 have been retained so that we 

 may have autumn figs. Towards 

 the end of August a dry day is 

 chosen for cleaning the figgery. 

 The portions of the shoots which 



have borne fruit are cut off as shown at fig, 220, and 

 useless shoots are taken away just above the lowest eye. If 

 this eye should develope the succeeding year it is disbudded 

 in its turn. Withered branches are also removed quite 

 close to the stem, care being taken to cover the open places 

 with grafting wax. Some growers leave this operation until 

 the spring of the following year, but prunings made at that 

 time give rise to a much greater loss of sap, and the 

 wounds made in the tree heal up with great difficulty. 



D 1) 2 



gathering of the crop. Should 

 the year be unusually warm, 

 some of the lower Figs may 

 ripen ; if not, they are re- 

 moved. The shoot that has 

 borne figs is cut at B. 



