hy Lindlei/s Theory of Horticulture. 457 



best; but, if the branch is very vigorous and much bent, it will 

 start an upright growth from the top of the bend, and very 

 vigorous shoots should thus be bent only slightly at first. The 

 ringing of a branch also has the effect of checking its growth ; 

 and, there being a less flow of sap to the branch, the action of 

 the leaves, light, and heat elaborate this small quantity more 

 perfectly ; the wood will be better ripened, the alburnum and 

 all its parts more concentrated and denser, because the branch 

 has not lengthened and extended into wood ; and the energies 

 of the leaves have been employed in the elaboration of the sap. 

 The bud, which, for want of sufficiently elaborated nutriment, 

 might have, but for the ringing, been only a leaf bud, will now 

 be swelled out and organised into a flower bud, and the branch 

 become precociously fruitful. The same fruitfulness is produced 

 by taking off a large arm of the root, which is a proof that les- 

 sening the quantity of sap in a luxuriant tree is the way to 

 make it fruitful : depriving the tree of a large portion of its 

 roots lessens the quantity of sap; and if accumulation of sap 

 were the cause of fruitfulness, this experiment is exactly counter 

 to what ought to be done. It is concentration and elaboration of 

 the sap, let the quantity be what it will, that produce fruit- 

 fulness ; and we must be careful to prevent the supply of more sap 

 than can be properly elaborated, by making the soil poor for lux- 

 uriant-growing trees, and laying the roots dry ; also giving suf- 

 ficient extent, to prevent the necessity of having recourse to 

 unnatural means to produce fruitfulness. For the other efl^ects 

 of ringing, in increasing the size of the fruit, if done the year the 

 fruit is produced (and not the year previous, as above), by the 

 accumulation of the sap prevented from descending, and the 

 efi^ects of all the different methods of pruning noticed, recourse 

 must be had to the work itself. When talking of pruning and 

 training, we are naturally reminded of the cold feet and un- 

 comfortable nature of the occupation, and the I'emedies you have 

 frequently suggested of wooden shoes, &c. ; but, if a single fold 

 of Macintosh waterproof cloth is put between the insole and 

 outsole of a common leather shoe, and a fold between the plies 

 of a double upper, provided the shoes are strong, and the leather 

 good the feet will be as dry and comfortable as if walking on a 

 deal floor. 



In the section Training, the effects of depressing in causing 

 fruitfulness, and of extension being necessary for the same pur- 

 pose (the shoots, as before stated, getting shorter and better 

 ripened), are treated at great length, and interesting descriptions 

 of vines, &c., so treated brought forward. The tendency of old 

 trained trees to produce young shoots at the bottom is noticed, 

 and attributed to the obstruction of the flow of sap in the densely 

 ripened old wood ; perhaps it is also partly owing to the great 



1840. Sept. h h 



