372 RINGING AFFECTS THE FRUIT. 



although the rest of the tree was very vigorous. There was neither 

 bark, liber, alburnum, nor any other living substance externally on the 

 diseased part. It was under observation for four years ; and there was 

 reason to believe that the wound was much older. 



The effects of ringing, in altering tlie appearance of the 

 fruit, is very striking. In the Horticultural Transactions, 

 iii. 367, the following cases are reported: — In a French Crab, 

 the fruit, by ringing, was increased to more than double the 

 size, and the colour of it was much brightened. In a MinshuU 

 Crab the size was not increased, but the appearance of the apple 

 was so improved as to make it truly beautiful; its colours, 

 both red and yellow, were very bright. In the Court-pendu 

 Apple the improvement was still more conspicuous, the colours 

 being changed from green and dull red to brilliant yellow and 

 scarlet. Many others of a similar kind are to be found 

 recorded in books on horticulture. It is, however, by no 

 means alone to the maturation or production of fruit that 

 this operation is applicable ; it will, of course, induce also the 

 production of flowers, and it has occasionally been used for 

 that purpose, as in the Camellia. It is best performed in 

 the early spring, when the bark first separates freely from the 

 wood. 



This operation has, however, the disadvantage of wounding 

 a branch severely : and, if performed extensively upon a tree, 

 it is apt, if not to kill it, at least to render it incurably un- 

 healthy ; for if the rings are not sufficiently wide to cut off all 

 communication between the upper and lower lips of the wound 

 they produce little effect, and if they are, they are difi&cult to 

 heal. For these reasons, the operation is little employed, 

 other methods being used instead. By some persons ligatures 

 are employed, and they would be preferable if they answered 

 the purpose of obstructing the sap to the same extent as the 

 abstraction of a ring of bark. In Malta, one of the objects 

 of ringing, that of advancing the maturation of the fruit, is 

 practised upon the Zinzibey, or Jujube-tree, by merely fixing 

 in the fork of a branch a very heavy stone, made fast with 

 bandages; its weight forces the branches a little into a hori- 

 zontal direction, and thus, independently of the pressure it 



