FLOWERS AND FRUIT. 45 
ornamental trees. July and August are favorable months 
to tie down. The branches are secured to pegs driven in 
the ground. All kinds of trees and plants may be in- 
duced to flower and fruit, no matter how 
luxuriant their growth, by a judicious use 
of the bending process. 
3. Ringing the branches. This is done 
by taking off a ring of bark wide enough 
to arrest the circulation of the sap, com- 
pelling it to accumulate above the ring. 
The same effect is often produced by a 
ligature made of wire. The effect is to 
produce early maturity in the fruit and 
an increase in its size, but at the ex- 
pense of its quality. ‘There seems, how. 
ever, to be no use for this operation on the quince. 
4, Grafting is a method of inducing early fruitfulness. 
A cion from a young seedling may be grafted on the 
limb of a bearing tree, and thus be brought into a fruitful 
condition much sooner than if left on the seedling stock. 
This is advantageous in testing new varieties. 
<< +o7o—- 
CHAPTER XIII. 
FLOWERS AND FRUIT. 
Ir has long been observed that a very full blossoming 
often results in but little fruit ; sometimes none at all. 
Why is it thus? A variety of causes may operate to 
produce the failure of fruit. If the weather be so un- 
favorable as to prevent the blossoms from performing 
their appointed work, failure is inevitable. When the 
weather is very dry while the trees are in bloom the fruc- 
tification is often too imperfect to set the fruit, and the 
blossoms dry up and drop off. Or, on the other hand, 
