THE FIG, ITS NATURE AND CULTURE. 
grow too thick, it may ha much too shady to 
allow of solar heat at all. 
TREATMENT OF FIGS IN POTS. 
This of course is in oases where there is 
the means of protection, if not of ahsolute 
forcing. We have already provided for the 
striking of cuttings and raising of plants in 
pots, the next consideration is, how to fruit 
them. The grape is not unlike the fig in the 
treatment it requires, tlierefore we may be 
safe in placing the pots in a vinery ; but they 
will, like the vine, do in the common green- 
house, and all other houses for forcing. The 
plants must be checked in a very different way 
to those out of doors ; the sorts we have 
mentioned already as the best for out-of-door 
culture are also the best for pots under protec- 
tion, except that the Small Black and Brown 
Italian may be added. It will be taken into 
the account, that if the potted plants are kept 
in a vinery, they will yield two crops a-year, 
and therefore that tliere must be no shortening 
or breaking the spring shoots ; let them go on 
to bearing, because they will, if well managed, 
go on continually bearing and ripening one lot 
of fruit while another is only swelling, so that it 
will be found quite possible, and even probable, 
that three crops may be had in a year. The 
soil for pots should be the same as for the open 
ground ; in thirty-two sized pots they may be 
made to bear ; and, if the fruit be not so large 
as those in the ground, they will be quite 
equal, if not superior in flavour to any other. 
As, however, we want no knife pruning, or, 
at least, no more than we can help, there must 
be some watchfulnc^ss at each separate start of 
growth, becau-e, if we allow a dozen branches 
to grow where there should be only half the 
number, the plant will require that which is 
an enemy to bearing, amputation with the 
knife ; rub the buds off before they attain any 
growth of consequence ; it is the only way to 
keep the plant within bounds. "When the 
wood gets old, let young shoots come, and re- 
move a whole branch to the very stem, by 
which means we k^ep up a succession of young 
wood, and get rid of the old ; for, let it be 
perfectly understood, that any system of 
shortening, to keep a fig- tree in order, is bad, 
that is, detrimental to tlie bearing. " I prune 
my figs every year very carefully, and I never 
get any fruit," said a gardener to us one day, 
and his wall-fruit trees generally were excel- 
lent and effective. "Let them alone very 
carefully," said we, " and you w ill see a dif- 
ference." He did as he was told, and tiien he 
had two crops, one of whi«h ripened, and the 
other did not ; from this time, however, he 
adopted the plan before laid down for figs on 
a wall, and he succeeded. We have known 
a market gardener to cover his autumn 
formed fruit all the winter, except mild days, 
and to save them by that means ; but when 
he built a small house against the wall, and 
enclosed one tree, he could ripen all the fruit, 
and grow little fig trees in pots in the size 
thirty-two, and produce a dozen and a half of 
ripe fruit at once on a single little plant. It 
is to be inferred, that the warmer the tem- 
perature of a house, the earlier will the fruit 
ripen ; but it is possible to over-heat a fig 
house at a time when it will cause all the 
fruit to fall off ; let the fig, however, share 
the fate of a vine or a cherry, and there is no 
danger. It is necessary to pot the fig up to 
the size thirty-two ; but, if it is in a good 
bearing state the second season, and unless 
you want to increase the size of the plants, let 
size twenty-four be the maximum. At the 
end of the summer, when the fruit is gathered, 
say September, the plants should be turned 
out of the pots, the matted roots be removed 
with a sharp knife, and, from the thirty-two, 
increase the pot to a twenty-four, putting 
fresh soil round the ball, and pressing it down 
close between the ball and the pot ; place the 
plant any where out of the weather and out of 
the way. If necessary to check the exuber- 
ance of the plant, keep it in the same pot 
another year, but remember that there be no 
shortening of young wood; cut small branches 
clean out if you will, and it is a good plan to 
do so when there are any, but it is far better 
to be looking out in time, and to rub off the 
buds instead of allowing weakly branches or 
shoots to grow. In pot culture a good deal 
of water is required, for the roots cannot 
travel after it, and especially when pots are 
small in proportion to the plant ; when the 
fruit is swelling, the watering is a most im- 
portant object, and liquid manure may advan- 
tageously be applied if the pots are full of 
roots, and this is far better than enlarging the 
pots, except at the proper seasons. The largest 
pots that should ever be used for figs are six- 
teens; these are as large as can be lifted about 
easily, and are quite sufficient for growing 
the best fruit ; these pots should be placed in 
the grapery, stove, cherry, peach, or green- 
house, rather in the shade than otherwise, 
and there according to the climate, or rather 
the temperature kept up, so will the fruit ad- 
vance, and it will not be at all uncommon to 
find the fruit in two or three different stages, 
but there will be abundance of it, with only 
the ordinary care and means that we have 
described. Fig houses are seldom erected, 
partly because, so far as temperature is con- 
cerned, the fig wants no other than the vine ; 
it will force, or come natural, or be merely 
aided a little ; in cold or heat it is equally 
healthy, although not equally prolific ; it is 
not worth while to bestow a house upon the 
