New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 957 



In June, 1910, a ring of bark one inch wide was 

 Ringing removed from the trunk of each of 122 seedling apple 

 apple trees then five years from planting. The bark was 



trees. taken just above the surface of the ground, and left 

 in each case a clean surface of succulent, active cam- 

 bium (new wood) which began immediately to repair the wound, so 

 that by the end of the season all the rings were entirely covered with 

 new, healthy bark. The trees were exceptionally strong and vigorous 

 to start with and probably in better condition to withstand ringing 

 than average orchard trees. None of them showed any set-back 

 from the operation. During this season no effect on the fruit could 

 be expected, except some slight increase in size of the apples already 

 set, but notes were taken on the crop as a check upon the effects 

 of the ringing, if any, upon the number of trees fruiting and of fruits 

 setting upon the individual trees in 1911. The results appear to favor 

 ringing; since twice as many trees set fruit in 1911 as in 1910 (107 

 and 54, respectively), and the bearing trees produced 56 per ct. of a 

 full crop in 1911 as compared with 7 per ct. in 1910. Of course, some 

 of this increase was due to the advancing maturity of the trees, but it 

 is evident that ringing these young, healthy, vigorous trees stimulated 

 fruit production. The trees, however, never bore so good a crop 

 again, even though subsequently ringed. In 1911, 27 of them were 

 ringed a second time by removing inch strips directly above the for- 

 mer rings, again with quick healing and no apparent ill effects. But 

 these trees ringed a second time averaged considerably less than half 

 as good crops in 1912 as in 1911, and did no better than the trees 

 ringed only in 1910. 



In 1912, wider bands were removed from these same trees, the rings 

 ranging from three to twenty-one inches on groups of four trees each. 

 This severe treatment had no effect in stimulating fruit production, 

 but an exhausting effect upon the trees, which increased with the 

 width of the ring. One tree in both the three-inch-ring group and 

 six-inch-ring group died after ringing, and from one to three trees 

 in each of the other groups were lessened in vigor. 



In 1911, Baldwin trees three years from setting were ringed, in 

 groups of five trees each, beginning with two-inch strips and increasing 

 the width of the band by two inches for each succeeding group until 

 twenty inches was reached. At the same time the bark was removed 

 from similar groups of trees in inch rings at varying distances from 

 the ground, up to two feet. These young trees suffered severely from 

 the ringing, as new bark was not formed rapidly enough to cover the 

 wound in any tree by the close of the season. The foliage dropped 

 very early on all the trees, several died, all showed lack of vigor, and 

 only 10 per ct. of them started into growth the following season. 

 Tests made the next year, with trees four years set, removing only one- 

 inch rings, resulted about the same; as the ringed trees made less 



