388 
On thi Cultivation of the Fvj. 
be seen, all the Figs which are produced after inidsuminer on the same 
yearns shoots, the object is to prevent exhaustion, and to promote the 
preparation of nev/embryo Figs for the succeeding year. The Author 
of the “ Encyclopoedia of Gardening,” No. 4860, very justly remarks, 
that the above practice, in connection with Mr. Knight’s mode of train- 
ino;, must, we think, effect an important improvement in the culture of 
this fruit, Wickharn’s mode appears to excite the powers of the tree 
too much. By training the trees on v/alls, as riders, and the branches 
formed in a radiating star-like order, and pinching off'all the embryo fruit 
after midsummer, would probably effect every thing that can be desired 
of this tree in this country. 
Forcing. —The Fig tree may either be forced in a house appropriated 
to the purpose, or in pots. There is a small house here appropriated 
tor the forcing of the Fig tree, 
[fig. 6 2] the house is thirty- 
five feet long, nine feet high, 
and seven feet wide, there is a 
fire-flue which runs along a 
few inches from the back wall, 
the trees are planted inside, 
about a foot from the front 
wall, and trained in the fan 
manner, on wires, about a foot 
from the glass. 1 generally 
commence forcinsr about the 
end of January.. As soon as the 
strongest shoots have made about six or eight leaves they are pressed 
between the finger and thumb, without letting the nails come in contact 
with the bark, till the soft succulent substance is felt to yield to the 
pressure; such branches cease to elongate, and the sap is repulsed to 
be expended where it is more wanted. A fig ripens at the base of 
every leaf, this forms the second crop, (the first crop makes its ap¬ 
pearance on the wood of last autumn,) and during the period the 
fruit is ripening one or more of the lateral buds shoots, and is subjected to 
the same treatment, the shoots are carefully examined every two or 
three days, and pressed with the finger and thumb ; from all such 
shoots as have attained to six or eight eyes by this treatment, I am 
able to gather three or four dozen of ripe fruit, every week, from the 
middle of May to the end of October, when the tnird crop is almost all 
gone. I make no doubt but four crops might easily be obtained, but I 
think it would exhaust the trees too much : as the third crop is ripening, 
water is withheld from their roots, to throw them into a dormant state 
They are pruned in December, cutting out as much old wood as pos- 
