THE FIG, ITS NATURE AND CULTURE. 
with them, and, moreover, wish to increase 
your varieties, you may look among the others. 
For cuhure in pots you may, in addition to 
these, adopt the Small Black and Brown 
Italian, and for the regular fig-house and ge- 
neral in-door culture you may add the Black 
Ischia, Green Ischia, Small Brown Ischia, and 
Yellow Ischia. Many authors recommend 
others, but the distinctions are not for the bet- 
ter, and we have no notion of increasing the 
varities by adding worse. 
We now proceed to the soil or compost. 
If good hazel loam from rotted turves, ori- 
ginally cut about three inches thick, could 
always be procui'ed, not a single addition could 
be made with advantage. The quantity of 
decayed vegetable is at least one-third, or 
near half, and if the loam be not too adhesive, 
make no change or mixture whatever ; if, 
howerer, it is too adhesive or marley, or 
would hold wet when squeezed together, there 
must be an addition of sand, in such quantity 
as will effectually make it porous, and as much 
decayed dung, that is thoroughly rotted into 
mould, as will compensate for the quantity of 
sand introduced ; but in most cases turves cut 
from a pasture, laid together and rotted, form 
the very best soil in which to grow the fig, and, 
though it is no part of our subject to touch on 
other fruit, we may add, most other fruit trees, 
whetlier in the house, in the open air, on walls, 
or as standards. Other mixtures are resorted 
to and recommended, because rotted turves are 
not always to be had, and we then have to sup- 
ply, as nearly as we can, a substitute for vege- 
table mould and for the dung which is in the 
top spit of all pastures. It has to be remem- 
bered, too, that the soil of the top spit of a 
pasture, which is the favourite store heap of 
loam in all gardens, is not so rich in vegetable 
mould by a great deal as turves cut three inches 
thick, or under, because the ordinary soil under 
the roots is three times as thick, however 
lightly it may be dug, and, consequently there 
is only as much decayed turf in three loads as 
there should be in one, and the rest has to be 
made up. In making, therefore, the borders 
for figs, dig out about eighteen inches, put 
two or three inches of brick rubbish at bottom, 
sloping from the wall to the front, which must 
for any tree be well drained, and if the 
soil has a good appearance, that is to say, if it 
is good loam, mix a little h-af mould, or, for 
want of that, rotten dung with it, and return 
it so altered to its place. If, on the contrary, 
it is cold, black, or sour, discard it altogether, 
and substitute peat, loam from rotted turves, or 
loam, dung, and leaf mould, and, if necessary, 
sand, well mixed, and on that border, which 
should be a south wall border, plant the trees, 
which should be one or two years old ; plant 
no deeper than the collar of tiie root, and tread 
well in. You may then regulate your border, 
but never use it for any crop that will keep 
off the sun from the roots. Crowding a fruit 
border is highly injurious to any fruit that is 
growing on it, for the roots require the genial 
warmth of the sun as much as the branches. 
We are taught by some writers to grow 
figs as standards, but where they succeed in 
one place they fail in twenty, that is to say, 
they fail to produce fruit in perfection ; they 
will bear, and sometimes nea^-ly ripen their 
iVuit, but rarely bring them to their full 
flavour. Espaliers are no better than stand- 
ards. The fruit is never so good as on a w^all, 
and it is a^ waste of room to grow them 
without that, except as a mere curiosity. 
Having planted your trees on tlie wall, or 
rather close to it, nail the lowest branches 
horizontally, and the others down as low as 
will give them only room, and thus bring 
down the two sides as if arms of the tree, leav- 
ing the upper part or centre to be furnished 
by new wood. Thus far we have placed the 
fig in its proper soil and situation. 
If, contrary to our advice, some are to be 
grown as espaliers and standards, all we 
can recommend is, that they be planted in a 
sheltered situation as near a south wall as 
they can be, and that stakes be driven into 
the ground to make standards fast, while the 
espaliers should be at once fixed on them, 
in the same fashion as they would be on a 
wall. A standard should be dwarf, the more 
so the greater chance of ripening the fruit, 
and the espaliers ought not to be more than 
six feet high. In the pruning of the fig 
as standards or espaliers, there is little else to 
do but to see that the branches are not in 
each other's way, not to cut back the wood 
of the present or past yeai-, but to cut out 
whole branches that are too close, and cut 
them clean back to their parent stem, cutting 
out old wood always in preference to young, 
and, therefore, when it is necessary to take 
out a branch, cut that which has the least 
strong healthy young wood. The only chance 
for standards is to keep the heads open, that 
the sun and air may have free passage to all 
the branches. When it is necessary to thin 
the young wood, do not shorten any of it, 
but take out the weakest and thinnest close 
home to its base. The great fault of all 
pruning that we have observed, or nearly so, 
among out-of-door figs, has been the habit of 
shortening the young bearing wood, whereas 
this should be retained. There is only one 
exception, which is, that as the fig will 
struggle to yield two crops a-year, the 
spring shoots of wood yield a crop towards 
the autumn, and, if permitted, bear them just 
large enough to be totally useless, and to 
spoil the branches or shoots from bearing the 
B 2 
