278 The Principles of Fruit-growing 



below the girdle. It would seem, therefore, that inten- 

 tional girdling might be made to increase the size and 

 hasten the maturity of fruit borne beyond the girdle; and 

 such is known to be the case. The girdling of grapes is 

 a common practice in some regions. The girdled parts 

 are entirely removed in the next annual pruning, and 

 enough of the growing part is left below the girdle to 

 maintain the roots and trunk. It will be seen, therefore, 

 that the liability of injury to the vine is all a question of 

 how much is left below the girdle and how much above it. 

 Careful vineyardists are able to continue the practice 

 year after year without apparent injury to the vine. The 

 girdling or "ringing" is done when the grapes are about 

 the size of peas, and a section of bark about an inch wide 

 is entirely removed from the cane. A gain in earliness of a 

 week to ten days may be secured by the process, but it is 

 commonly thought that the quality of the better grapes 

 is injured. In practice, only the very earliest varieties of 

 grapes are girdled or ringed for commercial purposes; and 

 it is doubtful whether the practice is to be commended. 



Apples and other fruit-trees are sometimes ringed to 

 set them into bearing. Many orchards develop a habit of 

 redundant wood-bearing, and these are of ten thrown into 

 fruiting by some check to the trees, as seeding down, 

 girdling, and the like. Probably every orchardist has ob- 

 served that the attacks of borers sometimes cause trees 

 to bear. It is an old maxim that checking growth induces 

 fruitfulness. This may be the explanation of the fact that 

 driving nails into plum and peach trees sometimes sets 

 the trees to bearing, and also of the similar influence 

 exerted by a label wire that has cut into the bark, or of a 

 partial break in a branch. Ringing to set trees into 

 bearing is an old and well-known practice, but it is not to 



