S2Z STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



in 1866, by chopping a gash two or three inches wide and nearly as deep en- 

 tirely around the trunk near the ground. The next year it sent up sprouts 

 from below the girdle and formed a new layer over its entire surface. This was 

 repeated in 1867, but in 1868 the bark and sprouts of the lower part died, and 

 dead branches began to appear in the top. This process of decline continued, 

 and in 1873 but one of the large branches put forth its leaves ; and, finally, on 

 the ninth year (1874) it died utterly. This remarkable tenacity of life is 

 doubtless due to the close, fine texture of the timber, and the fact that such 

 beeches in open land have an unusual amount of sap-wood, and are hence 

 called white beeches. 



A red maple, on the College Farm, which was girdled in April, 1873, by cut- 

 ting a channel in the sap-wood two inches wide and one inch deep, bled most 

 profusely, but grew as usual through the season. No Avood, however, was 

 formed below the girdle, and the bark died and separated from the wood. The 

 roots, nevertheless, remained alive, and the tree has borne its usual amount of 

 foliage during the summer of 1874, and formed its buds for next year, and 

 produced a new layer of wood above the girdle. Specimens have been collected 

 for chemical and microscopic analyses of the roots and of the wood and bark 

 above and below the girdle, in the hope that some light may be thrown upon 

 the subject of sap circulation and the functions of the bark, whenever this 

 work can be done. 



On the third of June last, branches of the apple, pear, peach, crab-apple and 

 grape were girdled by removing a ring of bark one inch long. They grew well 

 and bore an abundance of fine fruit, as was expected. 



On the fourth of June, small trees of red maple, elm, aspen, willow, linden, 

 chestnut, white pine, black birch, butternut, and a large wild grape vine, were 

 girdled by removing a ring of bark two inches in length. 



On the twelfth of June, trees of ash, bass, beech, black birch, yellow birch, 

 white birch, alder, black oak, chestnut, sugar maple, hornbeam, and iron wood, 

 were girdled in like manner; and on the twenty-third of June, specimens 

 of white oak, red oak, black birch, yellow birch, white birch, red maple, sugar 

 maple, ash, bass, aspen, witch-hazel, white pine, cornel, chestnut, hickory, 

 beech, ironwood, hornbeam, apple, and choke-cherry. July twenty-first, we 

 girdled specimens of wild grape, cornel, red maple, chestnut, black birch, 

 white birch, white pine, bitternut, white oak and black oak. 



On the twenty-eighth of August, the bark of the following species was found 

 to adhere to the wood, viz.: Red maple, yellow birch, wild thorn, hornbeam, 

 beech, witch-hazel, bird-cherry, white oak, red oak, elder and elm ; while the 

 bark of the following species was readily separated from the wood, viz.: Hem- 

 lock, white pine, alder, shadbush, white birch, black birch, chestnut, cornel, 

 ash, ironwood, apple and aspen. 



All the trees thus girdled grew through the season as usual, but none of 

 them formed wood below the girdle, except the grape and the red maple. The 

 former, being a branch of a large vine, with foliage both above and below the 

 girdle, formed new Avood on both sides of it, and finally, the two calluses were 

 united and communication restored across it. 



The red maple, girdled June twenty-third, formed wood only on the upper 

 side; but the specimen girdled July twenty-first, formed a new layer of wood 

 and bark upon the denuded surface. This was doubtless owing to the fact that 

 a portion of the cambium was left on the wood sufficient to conduct the elab- 

 orated sap and form new tissues out of it. This tree, like the others, grew in 



