Show protecting FIG TREE DURING COLD WEATHER method of bending bush to ground pinning them fast and then piling earth over them in mound form r a winter protection of fig trees tree A rig fig tree bent to broial rea ready d y for 13 rig fig tree covered with earth the fig tree has been widely though act extensively grown for many years in california and the southern states its ts greatest development envelopment is in thit tha rulf ulf coast region where it was ably introduced in early times by the rench and spanish there and along he south atlantic coast it grows in the he open without winter protection earing at an early age and abundant y on soils adapted to its culture in unusually 5 ally severe winters the trees nay be frozen to the ground but it if the he root system has been well dished sprouts will spring up grow rapidly and bear in the following rear under these conditions the tree appears as a large bush away from the coastal sections an annual crop Is iest best a assured by growing hardy vart varl ties and giving some gome form of winter protection the use of the bush or stool form from the start Is advisable where there Is frequent danger of win ter killing on either coast or in the vicinity of salt bait water it will need no winter protection tec tion but in the colder portions of the state the method found successful in maryland will do equally well this Is to branch the trees from the ground and in the tall fall after the frost has cut the leaves bend down the branches to the ground and pin them fast and then pile tho the earth over them mounding bounding moun ding it over the center and riling t n g to the outside so as to throw off afla L avater vater or gather the limbs like a cross on the ground and cover each bunch separately with a higher mound in the center like a four pointed star they will keep perfectly in cold ell mates lu in this way farther south where the tree Is grown as a standard find and the weather la Is only severe during occasional winters some form of protection is advisable for the first three years after this period the trunk of the fig Is less easily injured by cold that the fig has not long since been developed as aa a commercial fruit may be attributed chiefly to the inability thus far to produce a marketable dried fig the fig of 0 commerce in the humid southern climate Moreo moreover the fresh fruit which Is highly esteemed both by those who grow it and those who have acquired a taste for it Is practically unknown in large commercial centers being an extremely poor shipper |