METHOD OF FOUCING FRUIT TREES TO BLOSSOM. 117 



sequence of ringin:'; or girdling the linrib. 2tl, That all healthy 

 apple trees of sufiicient age and size, may be nnade to blossom and 

 !)ear fruit probably a year sooner than otherwise. A friend gives 

 it as his opinion, (founded on experiment,) that simply passing the 

 knife once round the limb entirely to the wood, has the same effect 

 ;!S passing it round in two places and taking out the bark between. 

 If so, it is jirefprable. But 1 am inclined to think that it ought to 

 be repeated in two or three months. Yours, &c. S. Hills. 

 Union, May, 1828. 



The above process is often resorted to by those who wish to as- 

 certain the quality of fruit which a young tree will produce, when 

 it is too young to bear fruit. The following, from Thacher''s Or- 

 chardisl, explains the theory, or cause of the effect : 



" This barking, or girdling, must be made at the precise time 

 when, in all nature, the buds are strongly swelling, or about break- 

 ing out into blossoms. In the same year a callus is formed at the 

 edge of the ring, on both sides, and the connexion of the bark is 

 again restored, without any detriment to the tree or the brancli 

 operated upon. By this simple operation, the following advan- 

 tages 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 requires to be graft- 

 ed. 2. You may thereby, with ccrtaii:ty, get fruit of a good sort, 

 and reject the more ordinary. The branches so operated upon, 

 are hung full of fruit, while others that are not ringed, often have 

 none or very little on them. This effect is explained from the 

 tiieory of the motion of the sap. As this ascends in the wood and 

 descends in the bark, the above operation will not prevent the saj? 

 rising into the upper part of the branch, but it will prevent its de- 

 ecending below this cut, by which means it will be retained in and 

 distributed through (he upper part of the branch in a greater por- 

 tion than it could otherwise be, and the branch and fruit will both 

 increase in size much more than those that are not thus treated, 

 'i'he twisting of a wire or tying a strong thread round a branch, has 

 been often recommended as a means of making it bear fruit, iii 

 tliis case, as in ringing the bark, the descent of the sap in the bark 

 must be im])cded above the ligature, and more nutritive matter is 

 consequently retained, and applied to tlie expanding; parts. Tlic 

 wire or ligature may remain in the bark. Mr. Knight's theory, on 

 the motion of sap in trees, is " that the sap is absorbed froni the 

 soil by the bark of the roots, and carried upward by the alburnum 

 of the root, 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, contri- 

 butes to the process of forming the wood." A writer in the Anicri- 

 can Farmer, says, he tried the experiment of ringing some apple, 

 peach, pear, and quince trees on small limbs, say from an inch to 



