Remarks on the Hinging of Fruit Trees. 125 



performed at any season, in April or May, as well as in August 

 or September, without there being any reason to fear the extrava- 

 sation 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 occa- 

 sion to apply any dressing or covering to the wound : in fact, 

 there is no occasion to do anything more than to draw the earth 

 round the tree, and to tread it down firmly with the 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 wound heals so rapidly, that in about a year no 

 traces of it can be discovered, except a few wrinkles 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 inci- 

 sion. The root operated upon appears, indeed, less likely to 

 send out suckers than any of its neighbours. 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 varieties 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.) ; but to force young seed- 

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

 It must, however, be used cautiously, as it sometimes does in- 

 jury instead of good, and when applied to the side branch of an 

 espalier, it produces no other effect than that of rendering wood 

 sterile which was before only 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 produces sterility, than 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 twisting the branches, transplanting, &c., and 

 it should only be employed with one branch at a time ; it can- 

 not be applied to several branches at once, without disfiguring, 

 and probably ruining, the tree. 



Vol. XII. — No. 72. l 



