306 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



parts of the tree, where it promotes growth, some of it finding its way- 

 back to the tips of the roots, whence the crude sap started upward. 



To increase the size of the fruit of a branch, the branch is some- 

 times girded by the removal of a ring of bark one-half inch to one inch 

 wide. As has been explained, this does not in any way interfere with 

 the passage of the crude sap into the branch, but since the girdle de- 

 stroys the growing layer, none of the digested food can pass down- 

 ward below this girdle. For this reason the food digested in the leaves 

 of the girdled branch remains to nourish the branch and its fruit, when 

 normally, a part of it should be carried back to help nourish the trunk 

 and root system below. When a branch is girdled in this way, the 

 extra food supply soon forms an enlargement above the girdle and 

 new tissue begins to grow downward, so the girdle, if not too wide, is 

 often entirely healed over in a few weeks. This healing process takes 

 place from above, downward, the branch immediately below the girdle 

 not increasing in size or showing much ability to heal the wound. The 

 fruit on branches judiciously girdled grows much larger and ripens 

 earlier than that on branches which are not girdled. Except in the 

 hands of the skillful horticulturist this girdling is a dangerous practice, 

 since the parts below the girdle are not properly nourished. 



If no growth can take place until the sap supplying it is digested 

 in the leaves, the question naturally arises, how does a deciduous tree 

 start into growth, and in some cases put out its flowers before its 

 leaves form in spring. The tree provides for this emergency by digest- 

 ing and storing up abundant food supply before it sheds its leaves in 

 autumn. This food supply is stored up mainly in the form of starch, 

 and is particularly abundant near the buds of the new twigs. Some 

 species store up a great quantity of it at the crown, just below ground, 

 and are thus enabled to throw up sprouts from below ground in case 

 the main plant is eaten ofif by animals or injured in any way. Some- 

 times the roots become very fleshy with this store of nutriment. The 

 ability of a tree to leaf out more than once in spring, providing its first 

 crop of leaves are destroyed by insects or by frosts, depends very 

 largely upon the abundance of this reserve supply of digested food. 

 As a rule a tree exhausts this food supply by the time, or even before 

 it comes into full leaf. As soon as new, green leaves are formed they 

 begin to digest food for their own growth and the growth of the tree. 

 If the leaves are stripped from a tree in midsummer it is not likely to 

 have a sufficient reserve supply of food to leaf out and become suffi- 

 ciently well nourished to pass the winter and put out again the next 

 spring. If it is defoliated in very early spring it usually has sufficient 

 food supply to recover and live. It will be seen, however, that it is 



