124 Remarks on the Ringing oj' Fruit Trees. 



it is inserted into the trunk, it will be in danger of being beaten 

 down by the wind, or broken by the weight of fruit. A good 

 place is at a quarter of the length of the bough, and beyond 

 other side shoots, the eyes of which will also generally produce 

 fruit. 



The npper lip of the wound swells considerably, and the 

 more so according as the ring has been broad, or the sea- 

 son far advanced. This tumefaction of the bark is partaken 

 of by the wood ; and the formation of this tumour proves that it is 

 principally by the descent of the sap, which has been elaborated 

 in the leaves, that the tree increases in girt. It rarely happens 

 that a pear tree, operated upon when it has attained the age for 

 bearing, does not go into flower the same year that the opera- 

 tion is performed. There are, however, cases in which the re- 

 pugnance of a tree to flower resists the efficacy of this method : 

 these occur with all drooping trees, and whenever the wood is 

 hard and rough ; and, when at last trees of this description do 

 show flowers, it is upon another branch rather than on that 

 which has been operated upon. 



The eye which is constrained by ringing to form its flowers 

 prematurely, is of the same description as a similar eye springing 

 from the young wood : the flowers, in both cases, are very lia- 

 ble to drop off"; and the fruit, when it becomes ripe, is deficient 

 in colour. 



The fruit of a branch operated upon, if it comes to anything, 

 owes its strength to the state of suffering of the bough which 

 bore it: it is unequal in bulk, very often small, worm-eaten, 

 dry, cracked, gritty, and of an excessive sweetness, which it 

 obtains at the expense of its juice. The fruit should be re- 

 duced, by thinning, to a very small number, if it is wished that 

 they should attain perfection. 



The new property which I have discovered to belong to ring- 

 ing is, that it causes the eyes of branches which have not un- 

 dergone the operation to flower also; and that these are almost 

 always immediately opposite 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 

 branches 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 dis- 

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

 according to the thickness of the root. The operation may be 



