Ficus carica.

Varieties For Open Walls, And Time Of Ripening

Brown Ischia, Large White Genoa, and Green Ischia, (August.) Brown Naples, Brunswick, White Marseilles, (September.) Black Provence, Yellow Ischia, and Genoa, (October).

Propagation may be effected by seeds, and cross impregnation to get varieties; the seedlings will be productive when six years old; by layers, suckers, slips, and grafting, but by cuttings is the mode usually practised. These must be of young wood, about eight inches long, with two inches of old wood attached. Plant in October, in a sandy loam and warm situation, the surface covered with ashes, to exclude the frost and drought. "The tops of the cuttings will require the additional protection of haulm or litter during winter; give water and keep clear of weeds during summer, and by the following autumn the plants will be fit to be transplanted into nursery rows, where they must again be mulched at root, and protected at top. They require no pruning farther than to rear them with a single stem, and keep their heads of a regular shape; the second or third year they may be removed to where they are finally to remain. Cuttings of roots readily make plants, but the process is too slow for general use, and the plants so produced are not likely to come so soon into bearing as by the layers or cuttings." - Loudon's Enc. Gard.

Cuttings of the shoots may be of well-ripened wood, which Mr. Mark-ham, of Hewell Gardens, says may be also "taken off in spring and potted singly in small pots; plunging them in a warm cucumber-frame, and re-potting them two or three times, they will attain a large size in one summer. With these cuttings, as with the trees at all ages, bottom heat and water is every thing." - Gard. Chron.

Soil

Mr. Markham says, "The best soil for this fruit is sandy maiden loam and turf mixed together, without manure of any kind, over-luxuriance being a great evil in their culture. I would advise all who are about to plant a fig wall, to form the borders about three feet deep, having a good drainage of any rough material. At the front of this, a wall four inches and a half thick, running parallel with the other should be brought up to within two inches of the surface, the intervening space being walled across so that each tree may have its own division. This prevents over-luxuriance, and causes them to fruit more freely. Any old trees that are growing strong and that do not bear well, might have their roots pruned back in autumn and walled in as above described. By doing this early it would afford the tree time to provide itself with new feeders, and by opening a trench in the front of the wall, about the end of March or beginning of April, and applying a pretty brisk lining of leaves and long litter for a few weeks, it would greatly assist the crop for that season, and establish the trees for the following.

Water occasionally with soft water; and, after the fruit has attained three-fourths of its size, two or three good waterings of liquid manure will assist materially in bringing the fruit to a large size." - Gard. Chron.

Good drainage is also very important; an excess of root-moisture making the plants over-luxuriant.

Standards must have a single stem, and require no other pruning than to remove irregular growths, suckers, and decayed branches. The soil should be forked over annually, and kept constantly freed from weeds by the hoe.