Review of Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. 227 



ation, to flower also ; and that these are almost always immediately op- 

 posite to the branches which have been operated upon, or a little above 

 those branches. There is not a single case known where this effect has 

 not been produced, though till now no one has remarked this excellent 

 property, which is itself sufficient to prove the advantage, and perpetuate 

 the practice, of ringing; because it not only makes the wounded branch- 

 es produce fruit, but, by throwing those branches into bearing that are 

 not mutilated, it insures a fertility to the tree which is not likely to be 

 soon interrupted. 



"Another mode of bringing fruit trees into bearing is, to take a 

 ring of bark from some of the principal roots, at a little distance 

 from the trunk. The ring ought to be more or less broad, accord- 

 ing to the thickness of the root. "The operation may be performed 

 at any season, in April or May, as well as in August or September, with- 

 out there being any reason to fear the extravasation of the sap, which is 

 so prejudicial to the tree when the roots are pruned in the spring. A 

 year, however, is gained when the operation is performed early in the 

 season. There is no occasion to apply any dressing or covering to the 

 wound: in fact, there is no occasion to do any thing more than to draw the 

 earth round the tree, and to tread it do\v7i firmly with tlie feet. If the 

 roots are not ringed all round the tree, the opposite side to that on which 

 the incision has been made will bear fruit ; which coincides with the 

 effect produced by ringing on the branches, and denotes a physiological 

 fact which has not been hitherto noticed. The Avouud heals so rapidly, 

 that in about a year no traces of it can be discovered, except a few wrin- 

 kles in the bark. No excrescence is formed, and no other roots are sent 

 out, either from the lips of the wound, or above or below it ; at least, 

 none that can be supposed to have been occasioned by the incision. 

 The root operated upon appears, indeed, less likely to send out suckers 

 than any of its neighbors. The fruit does not, in the slightest degree, 

 participate in the state of disease or suffering in the tree, which has 

 thrown it into bearing. 



"The wood of the shoot below the incision bursts almost always from 

 the bark, or the lips of the wound : this wood is of the kind called false ; 

 and the buds of it ought to be rubbed off as soon as they appear ; as 

 preserving this wood can only injure the bark, and retard the healing of 

 the wound. 



" The principal object of ringing ought to be, not to throw known varie- 

 ties prematurely into fruit, or to make trees bear on which other resources 

 may be resorted to in order to produce the same effect (such as shortening 

 the largest roots, pruning the tree after the sap has risen,&c.); butto force 

 young seedling plants to show early the bad or good quality of their fruit. 

 It must, however, be used cautiously, as it sometimes does injury instead 

 of good, and when applied to the side branch of an espalier, it produced 

 no other effect than that of rendering wood sterile which was before on- 

 ly backward in bearing. 



" Ringing never produces a marked effect on the fertility of a branch 

 more than once ; if repeated the following year, it more frequently pro- 

 duces sterilty, tlian a continuation of bearing. 



" The mode in which ringing affects a tree is precisely similar to the 

 effect produced by many other modes of suffering which are employed 

 to throw trees into bearing: such as bending the tree, breaking- or twist- 

 ing the branches, transplanting, &c., and it should only be employed with 

 one branch at a time ; it cannot be applied to several branches at once, 

 without disfiguring, and probably ruining, the tree." 



Art. 7, " On the arrangement of fruit trees in kitchen gar- 

 dens," is an excellent paper, extending to seven or eight pages. We 

 should be glad to make large extracts from it if our limits would 



