February 14, 1884. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
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Royal Society at 4.30 P.M. 
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Sexagesima. 
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Society of Arts at 8 p.ii. 
OPEN-AIR FIG CULTURE. 
IGS as grown and ripened in this country without 
the assistance of glass cannot by any means be 
termed popular. Yet they are decidedly whole¬ 
some, and if not exactly delicious as we generally 
understand the w T ord, are at any rate fully appre¬ 
ciated by those who have acquired a taste for 
them. I include myself in this category, and 
my liking for them dates from the commencement 
of my gardening career. I first tasted fruit of 
the White Marseilles, and if more of this delicious sort were 
grown in the open air we should hear fewer remark that 
English-grown Figs are generally “insipid” or “positively 
unpleasant.” It must be conceded that Figs ripened in the 
open air of this country are much inferior in quality to 
house-grown fruit, neither is this to he wondered at, seeing 
they are natives of a far drier and hotter clime than ours. 
At the same time, if we cannot grow them to perfection in 
our variable climate, there are many districts where they 
may be and are most successfully cultivated, the fruits thus 
obtained being very acceptable and even profitable to the 
cultivators. 
The southern counties of England appear to be most 
congenial to Figs, and in Kent and Sussex, especially along 
the coast and indeed for about twenty miles inland, they, to 
my knowledge, thrive admirably, while the Isle of Wight has 
long been noted for fine Fig trees. The neighbourhood of 
Bristol, again, suits them well, and this further convinces 
me that the sea breezes are favourable to their culture. Sea 
breezes alone, however, are not sufficient to insure success, 
and, it may be, quite as much depends upon the nature of 
the soil in which they are planted. In nearly every case 
W'here I had an opportunity of looking into the matter, 
notable examples of Fig trees were growing in soil in which 
either chalk or lime rubbish was freely incorporated. The 
finest trees I have seen were grown almost immediately 
below the Shakespeare Cliff, near Dover, and in very chalky 
soil which prevails and was brought in baskets from the top 
of the extensive cliffs thereabouts. The trees owned by a 
fisherman in charge of a stretch of land and beach at the 
base of the cliffs, were roughly trained up high concrete 
walls built to support the railway between two tunnels. 
These remarkable trees formed the most sturdy short-jointed 
and therefore fruitful growth imaginable, and the annual 
crops of extra fine fruits realised high prices, or 4 d. each on 
an average, at Dover and the Covent Garden Market. No 
other kind of fruit tried succeeded in this position. Some 
time since I found on inquiry that unusually high seas about 
four years ago killed the Fig trees and completely ruined a 
small piece of land that had been invaluable to the man in 
charge for the production of crops of early Potatoes. The 
sea had once previously laid bare the roots, thereby greatly 
damaging the trees. 
Another grand spec’men of Brown Turkey Fig, at one 
time growing at the end of a gentleman’s stables not far 
N*. 190.—Yon. Till., Third Smrim. 
from the Sussex coast town of Rye, was rooted principally in 
a very chalky border especially prepared for it. As affording 
an instance of the Fig’s superior tenacity of life as well as 
its evident capability of storing sap, I may mention that the 
stem of this tree was at one time intended, if not actually 
used, for a walking-stick. The gardener, an old friend of 
mine, who cut it after the foliage had fallen, left it unnoticed 
in his kitchen during the winter, and in the spring it was 
found to be pushing its buds. By way of an experiment it 
was taken back to the garden and fixed in good soil at the 
base of a warm wall, where it rooted and eventually became 
a large and most prolific tree. In the same garden a good- 
sized standard Fig tree rarely failed to perfect good crops of 
fine fruit, and at one time, though I did not see any when 
there, there were numbers of standard Fig trees growing 
about the Isle of Wight. As a rule the Fig is not hardy 
enough to be grown as a standard and requires the shelter of 
sunny walls. 
To treat them similarly to either Pear or Peach trees, as 
they very frequently are, will in most cases prove a great 
mistake, as if encouraged to grow at all luxuriantly they are 
neither hardy nor fruitful. They require a well-drained 
border and a compost consisting of equal parts of pure loam 
and either chalk or lime-rubbish. Into this they root at an 
extraordinary rate, but unlike richer soils it is very conducive 
to short-jointed hard growth, and that attained half the 
battle iswon. First get your proper fruiting wood, and then 
feed the trees exactly as Mr. D. Thomson so successfully 
treats the roots of his Grape Vines, and which he very 
plainly described on page 58. In common with the Grape 
Vine the roots of the Figs require plenty of moisture, and 
this is best assured by their being heavily mulched with good 
rough manure in the summer, and in addition, if the summer 
prove exceptionally dry, a few good soakings of water should 
also be given. A liberal top-dressing of loam, manure, and 
chalk or lime rubbish to be forked in during the autumn or 
winter, and no surface crops of vegetables to be taken from 
the border, these tending to rob the Fig trees and to cause a 
tendency to deep root-action, and consequently unfertile 
wood. 
The hottest positions on the walls of a garden should be 
assigned to the trees, angles formed by a junction, east and 
south walls, being particularly favourable. Even there, in 
most localities, they will require protection during the winter. 
The roots should be protected with a mulching of long strawy 
stable manure or other light material, while the whole of the 
stems and branches may be preserved either with mats or 
freshly cut and closely fixed branches of Spruce or other Firs. 
The less pruning a well-established tree receives the better ; 
but it is necessary to occasionally cut hard back a few large 
branches at different parts of the tree, the young growths 
resulting furnishing the centre, which otherwise would in 
most cases become bare. A tree with a clear stem is best, 
as less liable to produce suckers, which if encouraged are 
usually a long time very succulent and unfruitful. There 
are a few who stop the young growths during the summer, 
but no greater mistake could generally be made, as it is near 
the points of these where the embryo fruits are formed during 
the winter. Very rarely do the small fruits near the size of 
Gooseberries, which remain on when the leaves have fallen, 
survive the winter and attain maturity, and it is to the 
points we must look for a more certain if later crop. Dis¬ 
budding, however, should be practised where the shoots give 
signs of being too thick. 
The variety most preferred for the open walls is the 
Brown Turkey, this proving hardy, prolific, and of good 
quality. Brunswick is more luxuriant, consequently less 
fruitful, but the fruits are large, handsome, and good in 
quality. The smaller White Marseilles is the most delicious, 
but out of Kent and Sussex I have not met with it, and 
therefore suppose it is not much grown. Brown Ischia is 
also well adapted for open-air culture, and I much like the 
No. 1846.—Vol. LXX., Old Series. 
