THE FIG, ITS NATURE AND CULTURE. 
next year ; thi^refore the object is to advance 
the wood of midsummer slioots, which will 
bear the first crop in the early part of the 
next year, and to prevent the advancement 
of the spring shoots by way of encouraging the 
others. Therefore, when the spring shoots 
have pretty nearly attained their growth, 
they are broken ofi" back to two or three eyes, 
which immediately push and ripen their wood 
by the autumn, and this wood gives you the 
spring ci'op, which will ripen ; whereas, had 
the spi-ing shoots been allowed to perfect 
their growth, they would have been full of 
fruit that would have fallen at the first frost not 
a third grown. In warmer climates, both the 
spring and midsummer shoots produce their 
crops and perfect them. 
RAISING AND PROPAGATING THE FIG. 
Figs are raised from seed, and propagated 
by all the usual means of the most hardy 
plants, grafting, budding, layering, suckers, 
and cuttings ; the two latter modes are by far 
the best. From seed there is a chance of 
new varieties, but the fig from its nature is 
hardly susceptible of much improvement, and 
the period required is much longer than by 
any of the other methods of obtaining young 
plants. They may be sown in a common 
hot- bed in the early spring, and planted out 
at the foot of a south wall in June, where, 
with due attention to the watering required 
in so warm a situation, they will grow rather 
fast until the cold weather cuts oiF their 
.leaves and puts them to rest for the winter. 
While young they are more easily affected 
by frost than when advanced ; a little loose 
litter, such as broken straw or peas-haulm, 
will protect them through the winter, and 
before they start in the spring, they should 
be all taken up, their long shoots pruned 
closer, and be replanted where they are to 
fruit, which may be on the same wall, at 
proper distances, or as espaliers or even as 
standards, if the determination be to grow 
standards at all. There is nothing obtained 
by grafting but the change of one sort of 
fruit to another. It may be available where 
there are already some of the worthless sorts 
in a good situation, because, by grafting better 
upon the strong old wood of an establislied 
tree, the formation of a new head is the work 
of a very short time. The grafting employed 
for this may be any of the most easy. The 
cutting of an angular gutter or groove down 
the stock on the side, so as to go through the 
bark, and then cutting two sides of the graft 
in a form to fit in the hallow, so that the 
bark of the graft and the bark of the stock 
meet at the edges, is perhaps the best, 
because, in grafting old stocks, the wood to 
be worked is always so much larger than the 
wood worked into it ; otherwise, when there 
are healthy branches that may be cut back 
only so far as to make the graft and the 
stock of the same size, a common splice will 
do as well as any other mode of joining ; but 
it must always be borne in mind, that the 
more stock there is, the more danger there is 
of its growing, and, if neglected, it will soon 
conquer and outgrow the graft. In this, 
however, as in all kinds of grafting, there 
are two or three conditions to attend to, and 
the rest may be managed any how. These 
conditions are, first, that the wood should 
be cut clean and square so as to fit close ; 
second, that one edge of the bark of the 
graft should exactly meet one edge of the 
bark of the stock ; third, that the juices of 
the wood should not have time to dry before 
the graft is fixed and tied ; fourth, that the 
external air should be excluded from the 
place of union until the parts are united. 
The relative size of the graft and the stock, 
the mode of joining, and all other points, are 
matters of little or no consequence ; some 
will cut a slit down the stock and pare the 
inside out almost like the inside of a common 
clothes-peg, and then cut the graft wedge 
fashion to fit it; others will cut the graft in 
that manner, and cut the stock into the form 
of the wedge ; others, again, will merely cut 
two long slopes, as if they were about to 
splice a broken stick ; but it matters not how- 
it is done so that the above conditions are 
attended to, and the season chosen is the 
proper one, which in all cases should be when 
the stock and graft are upon the eve of 
growing. The lesser operation of budding is 
performed with little difficulty. The in- 
cipient bud, with a small portion of the bark 
attached, is inserted beneath the bark of the 
stock, which is slit down and crossed for the 
purpose of lifting it the easier from its wood, 
that the bark of the bud may be placed next 
the wood, and the bark of the stock lapped 
over it and tied down. There is no par- 
ticular object attained by budding, unless it 
be that where the sort wanted is scarce, every 
bud will form a plant, whereas, in a general 
way, half-a-dozen buds may be obtained from 
a piece that would only make one graft ; yet 
the grafted plant will be sooner in bearing 
by a good deal, inasmuch as all the eyes will 
push at once and almost form a head the 
first season. The propagation by suckers is 
a self-operation. The roots of the fig, like 
those of many roses, currant-trees, gooseberry- 
bushes, and other shrubby-growing sub- 
jects, wander and throw up suckers in pro- 
fusion ; and there is scarcely anything more 
detrimental to a tree or shrub than neglecting 
the removal of such suckers, always excepting 
when we desire to propagate by such means. 
