IIQ FAMILY RECEIPTS. 



breaking out into blossom. In the same year, a callous 

 is formed at the edges of the ring, on both sides, and 

 the connexion of the bark is again restored, without 

 any detriment to the tree or the branch operated upon. 

 By this simple operation, the following advantages will 

 be obtained: 1. Every young tree of which you do not 

 know the sort, is compelled to show its fruit, and decide 

 sooner whether it may remain in its present state or 

 require to be grafted. 2. You may thereby, with cer- 

 tainty, get fruit of a good sort, and reject the more 

 ordinary. The branches so operated upon are hung 

 full of fruit, while others, that arc not ringed, often have 

 none, or very little on them. This effect is explained 

 from the theory of the sap. As this ascends in the 

 wood and descends in the bark, the above operation 

 will not prevent the sap rising into the upper part of the 

 branch, but it will prevent its descending below this 

 cut, by which means it will be retained in and dis- 

 tributed througli the upper part of the branch in a 

 greater portion than it could otherwise be, and the 

 branch and fruit will both increase in size much more 

 than those that are not thus treated. The twisting of a 

 wire or tying a strong thread round a branch has often 

 been recommended as a means of making it bear fruit. 

 In this case, as in ringing the bark, the descent of the 

 sap in the bark must be impeded above the ligature, 

 and more nutritive matter is consequently retained, and 

 applied to the expanding parts. The wire or ligature 

 may remain in the bark. 



Mr. Knight's theory of the motion of sap in trees, is, 

 '•that the sap is absorbed from the soil, by the bark of 

 the roots, and carried upwards by the alburnum of the 

 roots, trunk, and branches: that it passes through the 

 central vessels 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 descending through the bark, contributes to the 

 process of forming the wood.** 



A writer in the American Farmer says, he tried the ex- 

 periment of ringing some apple, peach, pear, and quince 

 trep« on small limbs, sav from an inch to an inch and a 



