369 
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ON GROWING FRUIT-TREES IN POTS. 
fine, long, fully-ripened shoot, it may be successfully forced by placing 
the pot at the front of any house or pit, and fixing the shoot up under 
the glass. Nay, more—we are quite certain that such potted vines, if 
so placed in a vacant melon-frame, on a south border, in the spring of 
the year, and without other heat than that of the sun, reflected from a 
compact layer of white sand in the bottom of the frame, and the pro¬ 
tection of mats during the cold nights of April and May, would ripen 
their fruit perfectly about the beginning of September, or, perhaps, 
sooner. 
The long shoots of potted vines, to suit particular stations, may bo 
trained spirally, round four or five sticks set near the stem in the pot, 
and, leaning outwards, would be a convenient position for both the 
lengthening shoots and pendent bunches of the vine. 
No successful result can be expected from potted vines, unless the * 
bearing-wood, or rather the wood whence the bearing shoots are pro¬ 
duced, is strong, and perfectly ripened in the previous summer. For 
this purpose, the young and untried trees should either be kept in a 
warm, airy hothouse, or half-plunged against a south wall, that the 
young wood may have the advantage of the reflected heat of the sun. 
In such situations, however, those intended to be trained and kept in 
the bush form, should not be allowed to waste their strength in the 
production of long shoots, which will only have to be cut away. Stop¬ 
ping their points from time to time will enlarge the lower parts, and 
arrest the vigour where it will be most wanted in forcing time; 
taking care, however, not to stop so near home as to risk the bursting 
of the buds at the base of the shoot. 
When vines in pots have ripened their fruit, they are often taken out 
of the house too soon, and put away in some by-corner, and neglected. 
This is wrong; they should be mulched, and placed in full air on a 
warm border, that their wood, both old and young, may be thoroughly 
matured. Liquid manure should be given now and then ; but the roots 
should be kept, at this time, rather dry than otherwise. 
Vines well established in pots should always have a part of the soil 
removed from the surface, without injuring the roots, and have some 
fresh compost added, and this covered with half-decayed stable or cow¬ 
house dung. Such established plants may be put into heat at any 
time; but from the middle of January, to the end of March, is the 
most favourable to commence forcing potted trees. 
In every garden where there is a hothouse or forcing-pit, it is good 
management to keep a dozen, or so, of the different varieties of figs in 
pots; they bear fruit when very young, and require much less pot- 
room and space than other fruit-trees; they also succeed with much 
VOL. IV. — NO. LII. R K 
