34 PHENOMENA OF PLANT-LIFE. 



The Chinese are said to produce curious dwarf fruit-trees 

 by ringing a fruit-bearing branch and placing over the spot a 

 flower-pot with earth in which roots are developed, so that it 

 may then be detached from the parent tree and cultivated in- 

 dependently. The Italians propagate the jig-tree in a similar 

 manner, and this process may be m;ide very useful in securing 

 the certain growth of a sporting branch of any woody plant, 

 or of the branches of species with spongy or pithy wood 

 which will not root from cuttings. It is a well-known fact 

 that the ringing of a branch of a vine or tree will tend to in- 

 crease the size of the fruit the following season, because the 

 branch is thereby gorged with elaborated material for which 

 there is no outlet, and some persons habitually adopt this 

 mode of improving their fmit. 



In the town of Southborough, Mass., is an apple orchard 

 of healthy trees, from twelve to sixteen inches in diameter, 

 which were all girdled by the owner, Mr. Trowbridge Brig- 

 ham, in the spring of 1870, for the purpose of inducing fruit- 

 fulness. The desired result is said to have been obtained, 

 and the trees seem to have suffered no material injury, owing 

 to the imperfect manner in which the operation was performed. 

 At the time when the trees* were in full blossom, a narrow 

 belt of bark, usually less than an inch in width, was removed 

 from the trunks, about two feet from the ground. This did 

 not peel freely in all cases, and there were many crevices 

 where it was retained. By means of these connecting links, 

 the communication between the leaves and the root was im- 

 perfectly preserved, and during the season new wood and bark 

 were developed upon these places. In addition to this, in 

 many cases, the new wood from the upper side of the girdled 

 spot was sufficiently abundant to reach across and form a con- 

 nection with the living bark below. 

 ~ 



Upon one of these trees was found a branch some four 

 inches in diameter, which had been perfectly girdled in 1870, 

 and, although no communication had existed between the 

 bark of the branch and that of the trunk, it had grown every 

 year till March, 1874, when it was cut. The buds upon it 

 were poorly developed, but alive, and the ends of the branches 

 were dead. It apparently could not have survived more than 

 a year or two longer, and the reason was obvious upon mak- 



