618 Report of the Department of Horticulture of the 



tion. The foliage, likewise, lost its color and fell from the branches 

 four to six weeks earlier than that of normal trees. Sprouts two to six 

 in number sprang up at the lower edge of the wound on nearly every 

 tree. This would indicate that nature was endeavoring to provide 

 assimilated food for the roots since passage of such food from the up- 

 per portion of the trees had been cut off. As has already been stated no 

 gain in productiveness resulted from this ringing. The few fruits 

 which were produced showed no differences in size or color from the 

 normal. Clearly, ringing these trees seriously injured their health 

 without increasing fruitfulness. Orchard space necessitated the dis- 

 carding of these trees in 1914. Examination, at this time, of the root 

 systems showed that, as a rule, the ringed trees had smaller, shorter 

 roots (nearly approaching hairy roots) than the unringed trees. 

 Trees low in vitality had extremely small root systems. 



Early in June, 1911, 50 Baldwin trees three years from setting were 

 ringed, bands 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 inches wide, respect- 

 ively, being removed from groups of five trees each. At the same time 

 35 trees of the same variety and age in another block were ringed, 

 groups of five trees each being ringed with one-inch-wide rings at the 

 surface of the ground and 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 inches, respectively, 

 above the ground. In most cases new bark started to form, but at 

 the end of the season not a single tree had made a perfect formation 

 of new covering. Several trees in each lot were dead and all others 

 lacked vigor. All foliage dropped about five weeks earlier than from 

 adjoining unringed trees of the same age. The spring following the 

 ringing, but 10 per ct. of the trees of both lots started growth, and 

 this so weak that death resulted before mid-summer. While these 

 two lots of trees were less vigorous than the seedlings of the previous 

 experiments, they were representative of average trees of the com- 

 mercial orchard. 



About the middle of June, 1912, out of a block of 24 Baldwin trees 

 four years from planting, 12 were ringed one inch wide at the base of 

 the trunks and the remaining 12 were left as checks. These were 

 average Baldwin trees, vigorous and thrifty. None had fruited up 

 to the time of ringing. At the close of the growing season not a single 

 tree showed an entire coating of new bark. All had partially re- 

 covered, but lacked vigor and tone. As compared with the checks, 

 the ringed trees had made less growth. The foliage was smaller and 

 dropped earlier. In the spring of 1913, one tree failed to start. All 



