126 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



As regards the second method under consideration, viz. " Layering," 

 it is a species of multiplication much in vogue, and one to be encouraged 

 on account of its simplicity. It is best, if possible, to layer the plants 

 under glass, although I have seen it practised with success outside. The 

 plants to be operated on should be in pots, and the shoots bent down, a 

 small notch being cut below a joint upwards and pegged down into small 

 pots or boxes of sandy soil, a stake being used to keep the layer upright 

 and to facilitate the formation of roots. When well rooted, the con- 

 nection should be severed and the young plants potted singly in a suitable 

 compost and kept continually growing for the first year. Fruit may be 

 obtained the second or third year from trees raised by this method. 



Propagation by means of cuttings is, after all, the best and easiest 

 method, especially when trees are required in a short time. The shoots 

 selected should be from eight to twelve inches long, well ripened, short- 

 jointed, A:c. It does not matter whether the cuttings are provided with a 

 heel of the older wood or not, but the base must be smoothed over, and the 

 cuttings afterwards inserted singly in 3-inch pots of sandy soil and placed 

 on a moderate hot-bed to root. Supposing they were inserted in March, 

 the cuttings will have sufficiently rooted by the end of the year to fit 

 them for final planting the following spring. Care should be exercised 

 to rear the plants with a single stem until they are about eight inches 

 high, when laterals should be encouraged to ensure a regularly developed 

 specimen. 



Training and Pruning. 



The usual method of training the Fig in North Wales is either per- 

 pendicular or fan form. Of the two the latter may be considered the 

 better, not only as regards the general appearance of the tree, but in the 

 production of fruit. Great care should, however, be taken to train the 

 trees when young so as to ensure a symmetrical form and a well-clothed 

 appearance towards the base. For this reason the branches should be 

 kept well pinched back before they commence fruiting, and the leaders 

 must not be allowed to make too much headway until the actual appear- 

 ance of the base of the tree has been duly considered. As a rule, free- 

 bearing varieties may be trained to suit the cultivators, but the shy 

 growers and fruit bearers must be carefully and intelligently handled before 

 they can be induced to make satisfactory growth. 



As regards the pruning of the Fig it may be well to state that in this 

 operation one must be guided more by actual circumstances than a too 

 hard and fast rule. In North Wales, for instance, the method is not the 

 same as that practised in South Wales ; therefore I must explain the 

 procedure which it is necessary to follow in order to secure a normal crop 

 of fruit. I mentioned that the operator must be guided by circumstances. 

 Now in order to reduce the risk of killing the trees to a minimum, 

 pruning is best done in summer, because the cutting off of branches when 

 in a deciduous state is attended by profuse bleeding from the wounds, 

 and should frost then occur the tree will in all probability be killed. 

 All that is required when pruning established trees is to cut out all 

 vigorous shoots that are not required to lay in, also superfluous branches, 

 preferably the older laterals, retaining the younger wood, as it is on such 



