The Family Kitchen Gardener (1856)/Fig
FIG.
Fìcus Cárica.—Figuier, Fr.—Feigenbaum, Ger.
The Fig is one of the fruits first mentioned in history. Its cultivation appears to have been coeval with that of the Apple and the Grape. It has been admitted through all ages as an article of food, and some nations have been so exceedingly fond of the fruit that its exportation was forbidden. If history is to be relied on, we are retrograding in the culture and improvement of the Fig. Pliny, the Roman naturalist, is said to have accurately described about thirty sorts. It was extensively used in all ceremonies, and was presented to appease anger. Asia is its native country, and we read of specimens of the fruit having been brought from the “Land of Canaan.” It is cultivated to an immense extent in the south of Europe, and dried and exported. Many thousand tons reach this country that might be grown with great facility along our fences, from North Carolina to Florida. It is not hardy enough to stand our Winters without protection; but south of Virginia it might be made an article of profit, independent of its healthful influence on the constitution. There are supposed to be about forty varieties, though we might very readily class them into the White, Black, and Brown.
Black Ischia, about two inches long and two inches in diameter, rather flat towards the apex; deep purple color. Flesh-red, of excellent flavor, and very productive. They all ripen in July, August, and September; and again a small crop in April and May.
Brown Turkey.—In general culture. Size smaller than the former; color brown; a great bearer. Flesh pale red.
White Marseilles, White Celestial, &c.—Fruit pale yellowish white; round form; medium size. Flesh rose-white, very high flavored; a great bearer.
Propagation.—The Fig is increased by cuttings and layers of the preceding year’s wood, which root readily in moist, sandy soil. Cuttings of about a foot in length, planted any time from November to February, in a shaded, moist, soil, will root the first season, when they may be planted into a situation appropriated for them. Layers are made by taking a branch of two to three feet long, making an incision in it nearly half way through the shoot, entering the knife half an inch below an eye and drawing it towards the point of the shoot about two inches, which will form what gardeners call a tongue, on the lower extremity of which is the eye; bend this portion gently, placing it under the ground about four inches, where it will form roots in a few months. Early the following Spring these layers may be taken off and planted where they are required.
Culture.—The Fig is not very particular in regard to soils. We have seen it covering an extent of forty feet by twenty, in all kinds of soils, from sand to clay; but the fairest fruit is obtained from trees grown on a sandy, loamy soil, with a dry bottom. On very rich soils it grows too much to wood, on very poor soils the fruit ripens prematurely. Fig orchards should be planted about twenty feet apart, and cultivated be. tween the trees, till they nearly cover the ground. Never speak of your figs blooming: they never flower, to the eye; and the mode of fructifying is rather a speculation, even in the present day. “There is something very singular in the fructification of the Fig: it has no visible flower, for the fruit arises immediately from the joints of the tree, in the form of little buds, with a perforation at the end, but not opening or showing anything like petals or the ordinary parts of fructification. As the Fig enlarges, the flower comes to maturity in concealment, and in eastern countries the fruit is improved by a singular operation called caprification. This is performed by suspending by threads, above the cultivated figs, branches of the wild fig, which are full of a species of cynips. When the insect has become winged, it quits the wild Fig and penetrates the cultivated ones, for the purpose of laying its eggs; and thus it appears both to insure the fructification by dispersing the pollen, and afterwards to hasten the ripening by puncturing the pulp and causing a change of the nutricious juices. In France this operation is imitated by inserting straws dipped in olive oil.”—Lib. of Ent. Knowledge.
Pruning.—“The more you prune the less the crop,” is proverbial in Fig culture. All that is required is to shorten any irregular or overgrowing shoot, and cut out dead wood, of which more or less will show itself every few years.