282 SOME SPECIFIC ADVICE 



We have already seen the philosophy of ring- 

 ing (pages 161, 166). It promotes fruitfulness of 

 the part above the rings, because the elaborated 

 food is held there, not being able to pass the 

 girdle in its downward course. The fattening of 

 the top, so to speak, is at the expense of the part 

 below the ring. If the bark is not allowed to 

 cover the ring, the root must eventually starve, 

 unless there is foliage below the ring to support 

 it. As a matter of practice, however, the ring is 

 made in spring and is allowed to heal, and the 

 direct effect is, therefore, confined mostly to the 

 year in which the ringing is performed. 



Ringing is useful in two ways, it may set un- 

 productive trees into bearing, and it may modify 

 the fruit which is borne above the ring. The 

 former effect usually does not come until the year 

 following the ringing sometimes not till the sec- 

 ond year. The latter effect is immediate. The 

 philosophy of the one is that the extra food tends 

 to develop fruit -buds ; the philosophy of the other 

 is that the extra food hastens the maturity and 

 increases the size of the fruit already growing. 



Ringing to induce fruit -bearing is to be re- 

 garded as a special practice. It is generally a last 

 resort, not because ringing injures the tree (for 

 it usually does not), but because there are more 

 fundamental and general means of promoting 

 fruitfulness (read pages 163-166). If a tree here 

 and there persists in being barren, ring it as an 



