RINGING LIMBS FOR LARGE FRUIT. 353 



length of the limb. If this is not so, but the tips 

 of the branches are provided with a large portion 

 of the fruit, the thinning should be free upon that 

 part, so that the strain upon the limb shall be equal- 

 ized. 



Ilinging. This process is sometimes resorted to, 

 in order to obtain fruit of extraordinary size ; but 

 although allowable in certain cases, it cannot be 

 recommended for general use. It consists in cutting 

 a ring of bark off, of about one-half an inch in 

 width, and scraping the alburnum which lies imme- 

 diately under it, so as to make an obstruction to the 

 backward flow of sap, which is through this liber 

 or newly-forming bark. The sap having reached 

 the leaves, by means of the woody ducts, is elabo- 

 rated, and, finding its downward passage checked, 

 is precipitated into the fruit which lies above the 

 girdle, which is thus greatly increased in size. It 

 is better that this operation should be performed 

 upon several small shoots, each of which has a fruit 

 or two, than upon one which is common to all. 

 The limb above this ring is of course destroyed 

 after the first year. Some cultivators produce this 

 same result by tying a string tightly about the 

 limbs. 



Mr. Knight accounts for this phenomenon by the 



hypothesis that the part below, being deprived of 



descending sap, ceases to grow, so that it does not 



impel the descending current with the usual force. 



30* 



