I VI. TRAINING AND PfcUNlNG* 



parts j and so that all the ramifications of the tree be 

 spaced according to their size, without confusion or en- 

 tanglement, and that the eye may follow them with dis- 

 tinctness. 



251. Before I conclude my instructions relative to the 

 pruning of the peach against the wall, let me speak of 

 an operation which is not probably of modern invention, 

 and which is applicable to all fruit trees : it is called the 

 annulary incision, or operation of ringing, which is the 

 cutting out of a narrowish strip of bark all round 

 the collar of a tree, or round one of its branches 

 only. It may be done with any sharp instrument. 

 The annulary incision is performed a few days before 

 the blossoming of a fruit tree, and, by retarding the 

 flow of sap, causes it to tend to fruit 5 but fine fruit 

 obtained in this manner weakens the tree or the 

 branch on which it is borne \ and according as the plant 

 is more or less strong and the operation is renewed more 

 or less often, it is sure to perish. This operation may 

 be performed on plants or parts of plants of which the 

 too vigorous sap thwarts the plans of the gardener in the 

 training of his trees ; but let him consider it only as a 

 remedy against superabounding sap, and let him be cau- 

 tious in the use of it even then. 



252. Having now done with the wall-tree training and 

 pruning, with the exception of what is to be said as pe- 

 culiarly applicable to each sort of tree, the rules for prun- 

 ing and training which differ from those for the peach, 

 and which additional observations are, as I before ob- 

 served, to come under the names of the different trees 

 respectively, I shall proceed to speak of the mode of 



