RINGING AND ROOT-PRUNING. 207 



beyond tlie bunch. This is the renewing system. The other 

 way, the vine is formed as you please, and properly supported, 

 but all the new wood shortened to a single eye. The grape- 

 vine is, in fact, the most manageable of all exotic fruits. So 

 that you do not allow too many branches to grow, and too 

 many bunches to swell, it will always do well ; but all cuts 

 must be made clean and with a sharp knife. All fastenings 

 must be strong. The wood must not be too crowded, and 

 the practice of baring the grapes, by taking off the leaves of 

 the plant, is a bad one. Grapes will ripen and get to a good 

 colour behind the leaves : and to deprive a plant of its leaves 

 is to rob it of nourishment. 



EINGmG AND EOOT-PEUNII^G. 



Einging is one of the barbarisms practised by some of our 

 ancestors to promote fruit-bearing, to stop the sap from being 

 supplied in such quantities as to drive the tree to growth. 

 The operation was easily performed. Two cuts have to be 

 made round the bark of the branch to be wrung, at whatever 

 distance you please, and the bark between the two cuts was 

 removed ; thus the communication between the severed bark 

 was supposed to be cut off, and it was said the branch bore 

 much better. We condemn the practice altogether. K the 

 tree goes to wood instead of fruit, dig down to the roots see 

 whether they are small, and keep at home ; then, if there 

 be any large portions rambUng, cut off one or two with 

 a fine saw ; you need not trouble yourself to take out the 

 piece — leave it there : it is enough to have separated the 

 parts, and cut off some of the supply; it will have a far 

 better effect than ringing. If the root, on digging down to 

 it, looks healthy and moderate in quantity, make up your 

 miud there is a tap-root at bottom. In this, case you must 

 dig till you can feel under the tree, and cut off the tap, not 

 too close up to the tree or it may be distressed too much. 

 Eoot-pruning, when done judiciously, is alwa3^s beneficial to 

 trees. People may call all these things uimatural. They 

 forget that the trees are grown unnaturally ; that all our 

 varieties are unnatural ; that they are not even on their own 

 roots, but grafted or budded on a stock of too vigorous a 

 habit, and that the stock must be reduced to a sort of balance 

 with the head or bearing part of the tree; and the easiest 



