$ CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT ^ 



descent of the sap in the bark must be impeded above 

 the ligature, and more nutritive matter is consequent- 

 ly retained, and applied to the expanding parts. The 

 wire or ligature may remain in the bark. Mr. Knight's 

 theory, on the motion of sap in trees, is "that the sap 

 is absorbed from the soil by the bark of the roots, and 

 carried upward by the alburnum of the root, trunk 

 and branches ; thai it passes through the central ves- 

 sels into the succulent matter of the annual shoots, 

 the leaf-stalk and leaf; and that it is returned to the 

 bark through certain vessels of the leaf-stalk, and de- 

 scending through the bark, contributes to the process 

 of forming the wood. A writer in the American Far- 

 mer says, he tried the experiment of ringing some 

 apple, peach, pear, and quince trees on small limbs, 

 say from an inch to an inch and a quarter in diame- 

 ter. The result was, the apples, peaches and 

 pears were double the size on those branches 

 than on any other part of the trees : in the quinces 

 there was no difference. One peach, the heath, 

 measured, on a ringed limb, in circumference, llj 

 inches round, and llf inches round the ends, and 

 weighed 15 ounces. The limbs above the ring have 

 grown much larger than below it. If the ring be 

 made so wide that the bark cannot unite the same 

 season, the branch will perish. 



NURSERY. 



It has been 3. received opinion, that the soil for a 

 nursery should not be made rich, as the plants, when 

 removed to a more fertile soil, will flourish more lux- 

 uriantly ; but later observation has decided that the 

 reverse of this will be found correct. There is a 

 close analogy between vegetable and animal life ; and 

 it is a dictate of nature that both require a full supply 

 of nutriment from their earliest existence. It would 



