plants, both flowers and fruit. Upon this principle 

 it is that various arts are successfully practised on 

 fruit trees; such as curtailing their roots, cutting 

 notches in the larger limbs, and also that of ringing 

 them. The latter method may, with the greatest 

 confidence, be recommended for practice on young 

 free-growing apple or pear trees, which frequently 

 increase their wood too fast to admit of fruit being 

 produced. It may be useful to some of our readers, 

 and shall be briefly stated. 



If blossoms have not been usually produced, ring- 

 ing should be performed after the fall of the leaf. 

 This is called procuration ringing. When trees 

 blossom, but fail to bear fruit, it may be done whilst 

 they are in flower . This is called maturation ring- 

 ing; and will induce the production of much finer 

 fruit than would ever be yielded without it. The 

 operation merely consists in taking a ring of the 

 bark entirely off the whole circumference of a 

 branch or limb of the tree. The breadth of the ring, 

 on a luxuriant apple or pear tree, may be a quarter 

 of an inch ; but on those of slow growth, it should be 

 rather less. 



This practice is not so strictly applicable to stone 

 fruits, from the propensity of the trees to gum and 

 canker about the wound. Yet we have successfully 

 practised it on these, taking care to ring such parts as 

 have free growth, making the ring but narrow, and 

 doing it at a period when the sap is most inactive. 

 Thus may fruit trees be rendered productive, and 

 flowering plants ornamental, where neither was the 

 case before art stepped in and forced the efforts of 

 nature. 



Hort. Kew. 2, v. 2, 212. 



