It may be doubted by some whether I am justified in calling the Fig a hardy fruit, seeing that it cannot with safety be allowed to stand over the winter in our northern latitudes without protection of some sort or another. Seeing, however, that it is grown out of doors to a greater or less extent in almost all places of any note - and in many places extensively and well - it is but right that it should find a place in these papers. I may be allowed further to premise, ere the subject be fully entered upon, that in point of fact the Fig is not a fruit at all, although we generally speak of it as such. A Fig, in the strictest sense of the word, is a compound flower, and it will take no great amount of physiological reasoning to prove it. When a Fig first becomes evident upon a branch of its tree, it is not in the usual form of a bud, from which a flower bursts and expands into fragrance and beauty - it appears as a Fig at once, and continues to swell until what we call the perfect fruit is reached, without ever producing a flower. Let it be explained in this way. What is called the fruit is in reality the torus or bed upon which rests the flower and fruit of the plant.

The flower is therefore inside the torus, and blooms and fructifies as really as does the flower of the Pear or the Peach. The true fruit of the Fig is also inside the torus, and consists of those small appendages which crack between the teeth like little nuts, when the Fig is being eaten. This, then, is the real and true fruit of the Fig, while the great bulk of what we eat is just the fleshy torus of the plant, and is, in a botanical sense, identical with the torus of the Dandelion, after the seed has blown away, - with these differences, that in the one the torus is flat and bears its fruit externally, while the other is knob-like, and bears its fruit internally. The torus of the Fig is indeed like the torus of the Dandelion turned inside out.

The Fig is very easily propagated, and may be increased in many different ways. The ordinary modes are from cuttings of either the tops or roots, or by suckers and layers. New varieties, like other fruits, are only to be obtained from seed; and seeing that there are great obstacles in the way of artificial impregnation, a deal of time and patience might be exhausted ere any satisfactory results could be obtained. All or nearly all our new varieties of Figs, which are not many, are the results of chance. Those who may desire to raise seedlings should choose a fine-shaped and fully-ripened fruit; the seed should be extracted nicely, washed, and dried in the sun, after which it may be laid past till the end of February or beginning of March. Pots filled with the following composition, two parts leaf-mould, one part sandy loam, and one part pure sand, will answer for the seed very well. The seed being small, the soil near the surface ought to be very fine, and the seed ought not to be covered more than the sixteenth part of an inch. The pots may be plunged in a gentle hot-bed of from 65° to 70° of heat.

After the young plants are an inch or two in height, they may be potted into small thumb-pots, and grown on in a pit or frame, shifting them from pot to pot as the increase of the plant seems to demand. Cuttings are usually selected from nicely-ripened wood of the present year's growth, with a "heel" of the former year's wood attached. They should be taken off in early winter, before severe frosts set in, and be kept half-buried in moist soil of some sort in a cool pit or frame. In March they can be put singly into pots, plunged into a hotbed, and worked in the same way as directed above for seedlings. By using the same means they can easily be increased from eyes in the same manner as Grape-vines. By layers is perhaps the speediest method of obtaining fruiting trees, as a branch of almost any age, bent down to the ground, and fastened firmly into good rich soil, will, at the end of one, two, or three years, according to the size and age of the branch, be ready to detach from the parent tree. A branch of three years old, if bent in March, and cut something in the way Carnations are usually done, will by the following March be ready to transplant, and will be as large a tree, and bear equally as well, as a cutting two or three years old.

It is superfluous to say that suckers are the branches thrown up from the roots, and which are detached with a small quantity of roots adhering, and planted and grown in the ordinary way. Where plants are increased, either by layers or suckers, it will be found very beneficial to give the roots a good mulching, especially in the case of layers.

The soil which best suits the Fig is a good and moderately-rich friable calcareous loam. If the soil be too rich, there is danger that the trees may grow too much to wood, the natural consequence of which would be that little fruit would be produced. Where the roots can be confined within limited bounds, the trees may be richly fed, and splendid crops be the result; but where the trees have the full scope of the garden to run, the very reverse must be the case. There are three trees here which produce more fruit yearly than is produced by three times their number in another quarter of the garden. The latter trees are planted in the open garden against the south wall, and appear to luxuriate extremely. They always produce an abundance of fruit, but these at the setting-period often nearly all drop. The other three to which I have referred are grown within very prescribed limits. Planted against a brick wall, they are kept from rambling in every direction by another brick wall, which I got built for the express purpose three years ago, and which is only 2 ½ feet in front of the wall against which they are planted.

Each tree has about 12 feet of a border this breadth, and 2 feet deep in which to grow; and so much am I pleased with the result of my experiment, that as soon as time and circumstances will permit, all the Fig-trees about the place shall be treated in much the same manner, as there can be no doubt but that the confinement of the roots is the principal cause of this profitable change.

The most favourable position for the Fig to occupy is a south or nearly south aspect. Those who are about to plant, we would earnestly recommend to adopt the plan of confinement advocated above. 4 or 5 feet, however, would be a better width than 2½ feet; for while it would confine the roots to a great extent, it would not entail the amount of labour necessary to feed the plants in the growing season which we with so small a border are compelled to adopt. We would have made our borders wider, but the position would not admit of it. Another thing which requires special attention is proper drainage, for While the Fig requires a considerable amount of moisture during the summer months, it also requires but little of it in winter. The tree being so tender this ought to have particular attention, as the drier the roots are kept in winter, the less injury the tree is likely to suffer from frost. To attain this object drains ought to be cut underneath where the trees are to be planted, and at least 6 to 9 inches of broken bricks, stones, or suchlike material ought to be placed over this and between the soil for the trees to grow in.

As we have repeatedly affirmed in our former papers, as much if not more of the success of fruit-growing depends upon the formation and proper drainage of borders than upon any after-management. If things are not done thoroughly and well at first, it is in vain to expect satisfactory results.

The Fig resembles the Vine in the manner of producing its crops - that is to say, it produces its fruit upon the wood of the current year, and under favourable circumstances will ripen it off. It is necessary to understand this before the cultivator can hope to be able to prune and train his trees well. Let us start with a young tree of two years old. It should possess a main stem about 2 feet tall, and have two side branches - one on either side - about 12 to 18 inches from the ground. These side shoots ought to be trained horizontally; and the leading shoot allowed to grow until it reached about 18 inches above them, when it should be pinched to induce the formation of two more side shoots, which are also to be trained horizontally; and this practice is to be continued until the wall is filled with young branches holding a permanent position, about 18 inches apart all over. These branches being trained horizontally, in all probability the greater part of the buds thereupon will start into growth. If so, we would allow a shoot to start and grow every 9 inches along the branch. Every second shoot, as soon as it attained the height of 8 inches, ought to be pinched, in order that it might at once start into fruit.

In the warmer counties of England this can easily be accomplished in the one year; but, as a rule, the fruit is formed in autumn of the one year and ripened off in the summer of the following. If this cannot be done in the one season, then the pinching ought not to be done till the middle or end of August, when the shoot ought to be cut back to the height already indicated, when it will form its small bud-like fruits at the axil of every leaf-stalk. If the fruit attains a size larger than that of a Green Pea, it never, in our experience, holds on during the winter; hence our caution not to pinch too early in the season, except in the case of having a climate to deal with which would perfect the fruit in one season. It will thus be seen that each alternate shoot has undergone the pinching process, while the shoots between have escaped. Our reason for this is, that when the pruning season comes round, those which have been pinched ought to be allowed to remain to perfect the fruit upon them the following season; while those which have not been pinched will probably have formed no fruit, and ought to be removed entirely, leaving only one or two buds at the base.

When the season of growth has again arrived, a fresh shoot ought to be trained up from the buds left at the pruning season, and treated in exactly the same manner as has been directed already for the shoot bearing the fruit this season, so that when the pruning-time again comes, the shoot which has borne the fruit ought to be removed, leaving only a bud or two to form a fresh shoot for the succeeding year. By this method the one shoot is fruit-bearing the one year while the other is not, and vice versa. This, we believe, is the best mode of cultivating the Fig, and is far preferable to the thinning and training after the manner of the Peach which so many practise. It reduces the training and pruning to a regular system, easily understood and easily put into practice. The permanent branches being horizontal, it would be a great addition to the general appearance of the tree if the fruit-bearing shoots were trained at an angle of 45°. It is of no practical utility, so far as we are aware, but we recommend it merely for appearance' sake. Trained in this fashion, the fruiting wood is more regularly dispersed than by any other plan that we know of, while ample space is allowed for the development of leaves and the thorough perfecting of the fruit.

James M'Millan.

(To be continued).