160 THE APPLE CULTURIST. 



plenty is what the blood is to animals. Its vigorous flow reaches every part of its 

 composition, and gives to each its proper play and function. We can show fre- 

 quent instances of a decrepit shrivelled branch, by the throwing open and manur- 

 ing of the roots, and a thorough pruning of the whole top, increasing from an inch 

 to two inches diameter in a single season, and without assistance, as it grew, 

 bursting and throwing off its old contracted bark as freely as the growth of a 

 vigorous asparagus-shoot would develop itself during a warm shower in May. 

 Such nostrums are only the invention of the head to excuse the laziness of the 

 hands." 



Girdling and Peeling Trees. During the former part of 

 summer, and sometimes as late as the first of August, the 

 bodies of apple-trees may often be denuded of every parti- 

 cle of bark, from the ground to the branches, with excel- 

 lent effect, in some instances, on the productiveness of the 

 tree. But such an operation must not be performed too 

 early, nor too late in the growing season. There must be 

 a liberal supply of cambium, or new wood in a semi-fluid 

 condition, between the old bark and the wood. Then, if 

 the old bark be removed, the cambium will form a new 

 coating of bark, instead of another concentric ring of new 

 wood. We have frequently seen apple-trees completely 

 stripped of the bark, clear up among the limbs. On such 

 trees, before the end of the growing season, a smooth and 

 thick bark had been formed, wherever the old bark had 

 been disturbed. 



The object in view is, to promote fruitfulness. In many 

 instances, " ringing " the body of a tree, or the main branch- 

 es, by removing a strip of bark quite around them, half 

 an inch or an inch wide, will have the desired effect. In 

 some instances, a sharp knife has simply been run around 

 the limb, cutting through the bark, without removing any 

 portion. Ringing of branches will sometimes promote ear- 

 ly maturity. We have often seen branches loaded with 

 mature fruit, more than a week previous to the time of ri- 

 pening of the same kind of fruit on other branches of the 

 same tree. Then, again, we have ringed branches with our 

 own knife, and no effect whatever could be perceived in 



