50 FRUIT. 



should be preferred, and those which are sweet 

 or insipid rejected. 



Unless recourse is had to hybridism ; when 

 a wild insipid fruit may be possibly improved, 

 or may be the means of improving something 

 else. 



It is very much upon such considerations as 

 the foregoing that the rules of training must de- 

 pend. 



The effect of removing a ring of bark from 

 the fruit-bearing branch, is to increase con- 

 siderably the size of the fruit above the ring, 

 by retaining the juices of the wood which are 

 prevented from returning, the communication 

 being cut off. But if the ring is too wide or 

 the branch on which it is practised too small, a 

 morbid state of early maturity is produced, and 

 the fruit is worthless. The breadth of the ring 

 should be in proportion to the thickness of the 

 branch, and in fruit-bearing trees should be 

 performed as soon as the flowers are apparent 

 ui the spring. 



Hybridisation has been had recourse to with 

 much success to improve fruits, but although 

 the results have been thus good, sufficient care 

 has not been taken to note down the detail of 

 the experiments so as to arrive at any fixed 



