156 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIBTt. 
The earlier the fruit the more money it fetches, and for this 
reason the cultivators hasten the ripening of the earlier Figs by- 
inserting a drop of good olive oil into the eye of each. This must 
be done at the exact moment when the fruit is ready for it. The 
full light shade of the skin indicates the initial period of 
maturity. This operation should, according to ancient authori- 
ties, take place in the evening during a south or an east wind, 
whereas the fruit should be gathered at dawn, between five 
and six o'clock, after the dew has fallen. 
The art of arranging the fruit with leaves in boxes or 
wicker baskets is only properly accomplished by the Argenteuil 
ladies. 
The Figs sent to market are gathered before they are quite 
ripe, and packed in flat oval baskets with the edges a little 
turned up, the bottom being lined with vine leaves. The Figs are 
arranged in the basket so that all the eyes are towards the 
outside, one layer above the other, with alternate layers of 
leaves, in such a way that a pyramid is formed, the whole then 
being covered over with a newspaper firmly pinned on. 
It is then despatched to Paris, and exhibited in all its glory, 
with the skin just beginning to crack and split ; but it need fear 
no rivals among the provincial or Bordeaux productions. The 
sale is certain, and the three hundred growers in this fertile spot 
are enabled to increase their property with the proceeds. 
In Provence quite a different method is adopted. The trees 
are left out of doors during the winter, and the branches are 
allowed to droop without any attention being paid to them, in 
accordance with the provincial proverb, " Fillo et figuicro li faon 
pas veire la jarreti^ro " (One ought not to see the garter on a 
young girl or a Fig tree). Owing to the hot climate, two crops 
can be gathered at an interval of forty or fifty days from the 
double-cropping varieties, and with the other kinds a crop can be 
gathered from the current year's wood-growth towards the end of 
the season in the same year that the fruit is formed. The 
process of drying Figs in the sun is much facilitated by the 
temperature. There is a largo trade done in Figs for this purpose. 
A plantation twenty-five years old having an area of one hectare 
will yield 800 francs' worth of dry Figs after deducting expenses 
and waste. 
Among the double-crop varieties suitable for drying is the 
