628 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



supplied wiih moisture ; and drought, in such 

 cases, always operates very povverlully in accele- 

 rating maturity. When the branch is small, or 

 the space li-om which the bark has been taken off 

 is considerable, it ahuost always operates in ex- 

 cess ; a morbid slate of early maiurity is induced, 

 and the Iruit is worthless. 



" If this view of the eti'ects of partial decortica- 

 tion or ringing, be a just one, it Ibllows that much 

 of the success of the operation must be dependent 

 upon the selection of proper seasons, and upon 

 the mode of performing it being well adapted to 

 the object of the operator. Il'ihat be the pro- 

 duction o( blossoms, or the means of making the 

 blossoms set more freely, the ring of bark should 

 be taken off early in the summer preceding the 

 period at which blossoms are required : but, if the 

 enlargement and more early maturity of the fruit 

 be the objects, the operation should be delayed till 

 the bark will readily part from the alburnum in the 

 spring. The breadth of the decorticated space 

 must°be adapted to the size ol the branch ; but 1 

 have never witnessed any except injurious effects, 

 whenever the experiment has been made upon 

 very email or very young branches, (or such be- 

 come debilitated and sickly, long belbre the fruit 

 can acquire a proper slate of maturity." 



The effects ol" ringing in altering the appear- 

 ance of the Iruit is very striking. In the Horti- 

 cultural Transactions, iii. 367, tlie following cases 

 are reported :— In a French crab, the fruit, by 

 ringing, was increased to more than double the 

 size, and the color of it was much brightened. 

 In a Minshull crab the size was not increased, 

 but the appearance of the apple was so improved 

 as to make it truly bcautilul ; its colors, both red 

 and yellow, were very bright. In the courtpendu 

 apple the improvement was still more conspicu- 

 ous, the colors being changed from green and 

 dull red, to brilliant yellow and scarlet. Many 

 olhers of a similar kind are to be found recorded 

 in books on horticulture. It is, however, by no 

 means alone to the maturation or produciion of 

 fruit that this operation is applicable ; it will, of 

 course, induce also the production ol flowers, and 

 it has occasionally been used (or that purpose, as 

 in the camellia. It is best performed in the early 

 spring, when the bark first separatee Ireely Irom 

 the wood. 



This operation has, however, the disadvantage 

 of wounding a branch severely ; and, if performed 

 extensively upon a tree, it is very apt, if not to 

 kill it, at least to render it incurably unhealthy ; 

 for if the rings are not sufficiently wide to cut off' 

 all communication between the upper and lower 

 lips of the wound they produce little effect, and if 

 they are they are difficult to heal. For these 

 reasons the operation is but little employed, other 

 means being used instead. By some persons 

 ligatures are made use of, and they would be pre- 

 ferable if they answered (he purpose of obstruct- 

 ing the sap to (he same extent as the abstraction 

 of a ring of bark. In Malta, one of the objects of 

 ringing, that of advancing the maturation of the 

 fruit, is practised upon the zinzibey, or jujube 

 tree, by merely fixing in the fork of a branch a 

 very heavy stone, made fast with bandages ; its 

 weight forces the branches a little into a horizon- 

 tal direction, and thus, independently of the pres- 

 Bure it exercises upon the parts it touches, ob- 

 istructg the free circulation of the eap. 



MANURE APPLIED TO THE SURFACE. 



To tlieEditor of llie Farnicrs' Register. 



South Carolina, Oct. 19th, 1841. 



Having lately made a report to the Agricultural 

 Society of the district in which I reside, in which 

 1 stated my belief that the surface application of 

 manures, especially to the corn crop afier it is 

 up, to be covered by the first working, was decid- 

 edly prelerable toanyoiher mode oJ applying it, 

 the derisive stare of incredulity was plainly le- 

 gible upon several countenances. Not that any 

 seemed to doubt that I believed so, but a very large 

 majority of the gentlemen present disbelieved the 

 fact itselfl 



In the report I detailed and experiment of my 

 own made in 1838, the result ol which was suf- 

 ficient to satisly the most skeptical, had they 

 witnessed it, and which, of iisell^, was abun- 

 dantly so to justify me in coming to the conclu- 

 sions I did, I also, in support of my opinion, 

 made some extracts from an article in a number 

 (10) of the second volume of the Register, pp. 

 643-4, over the signature of J. M. G , which, il I 

 am not greatly nii=(Hken as to who the wriier 

 was, is surely good authority vviih the whole 

 reac/mg agricultural communii\'. Will he please 

 to inlbrm us through the Register wheiher he has 

 made any further experiments, and what his pre- 

 sent opinion is on that subject? 



I happened to have only the number of the 

 volume in which his article appeared, nor have 

 I any volume of earlier dale than the sixth, or 

 1 might in all probability find corroborative testi- 

 mony Irom other writers, or fioai J. M. G. him- 

 self. My 6ih, 7th, and 8th volumes are at the bind- 

 er's, consequently 1 cannot refer to them. But in 

 the last number of the Register, I had the satis- 

 faction of finding, in the exiracts Irom G%( 

 Emory's Address, the very thing, of all others, 

 I most desired to see. He says, (after giving an 

 account of some experimen's in turning in the oat 

 crop in its green state,) " I do not expect to have my 

 opinion changed, and expect confidently to remain 

 where I now am, and have been lor a long time, 

 a firm believer in the propriety of surface manur- 

 ing raihf r than turning it under. I have never 

 been disappointed in weeds or other manure 

 spread upon the surface and allowed to decompose 

 there, and thus become absorbed by the soil." 

 Again, "This "experiment much better accords 

 with the theory of surface manuring, which 

 seems rapidly to be gaining ground every where." 

 Now, sir, I would not take the price of the Re- 

 gister for one year, for this single article. As I 

 heard a political liiend once say, after going from 

 one district, in which he expected but a very few 

 votes, into another where he was well received 

 and counted on all : " It made me feel like 

 going out of a snow storm into a warm bath." 



Gen. Emory has even gone farther than I have; 

 fori did suppose that \he turning in of green 

 crops was the ne plus ultra of improving our 

 land with putrescent manure; and in my report 

 recommended it, in preference to the tardy and 

 laborious practice of making and hauling out 

 such as is usually applied. 



Is it best to " (bilow nature," and allow our 

 green crops to rot on the surface? Do, sir, give 



