Book IV. 



INDUCING FRUITFULNESS. 



417 



fected ; for as the fruit is sooner ripened, so the seeds will likewise be sooiiei- 

 matured. When the influence of ringing is limited to three or four months, as in 

 the case of maturation-ringing, it is obvious that the ring need not be so broad as when 

 it is to be extended to a longer period ; from which it follows that maturation-ringing, as 

 it keeps the bark separated for a shorter period, will do less injury to the health of the 

 branch than the other mode. [Hort. Trmis. iv. 557.) 



2170. Ringing is said to force young trees to show blossoms. Hempel states as a 

 consequence resulting from ringing, that you may force young trees to show fruit, before 

 they otherwise would do. That ringing may have some effect in this way, we think 

 highly probable ; but by no means so much as is ascribed to it by Hempel. Trees must 

 arrive at their age of puberty, like animals, before they can propagate their species. 

 Abundance of food and heat will, no doubt, induce a degree of precocity in the subjects 

 of both kingdoms ; and as ringing gives in effect abundance of food to the particular part 

 above the excision, it must have some effect, but it has not been proved to have much. 

 Ringing will produce blossoms in all plants, herbaceous or shrubby, propagated by ex- 

 tension, that is, originated otherwise than from seed, at arty age; but its eflfects on young 

 trees raised from seed, or in causing blossoms on any description of tree to set, are much 

 less certain ; though in all cases where they do set, the size of the fruit will be greatly 

 enlarged for the first year or two. 



2171. In forming the operation of' ringing, a ring of outei' and inner bark, not 

 larger than the tree can fill up in stone-fruit in one, and in kernel-fruit in two, or at 

 most three yeai-s, is cut clean out with a knife, or the ringing shears, (fg. 123.) If larger, 

 the tree becomes too much excited to fruitfulness, and the part of it separated from the 

 root by the ring dies, while the stem and parts adjoining the root become too luxuriant. 

 When the rings are made so wide as that the barks cannot unite for two or three years, 

 the result, says the author of the article, Bourrelet, in N. C. d" Agriculture, &c. will be 

 to " accelerate the production of blossoms, and the setting of fruit, and to augment their 

 size during the first year ; and then, during the following years, to make them languish, 

 and at last die." "There is a pear-tree," Sabine observes, "against one of the walls 

 in the kitchen-garden, belonging to his Majesty, at Kev.', which underwent the operation 

 of ringing about fifteen years ago. The part operated on was near the root; and, as it 

 was a principal arm, about one half of the whole tree became influenced by the operation. 

 This half has uniformly borne fruit, the other half has been nearly barren. The portion 

 of stem which was laid bare is about six inches wide, and it has not been again covered 

 by bark. That part just above the ring is considerably larger than the part below it. 

 The ends of the branches appear in much decay, and there are but very few young shoots 

 thrown out from the sides ; whilst, on the other part of the tree, the shoots, as usual, 

 proceed from the extremities, as well as from the sides of the main branches. I appre- 

 hend, from the present appearance of the whole, that the portion of the tree which, by 

 the separation of the bark, has been deprived in a great measure of supply from the root, 

 cannot survive many years." 



2172. Renewal of the soil about fruit-trees has been found by Hay, of Newliston, 

 near Edinburgh, in the case of peaches ; and Maher, of Arundel, in the case of figs, 

 and by various others, to renew the fruitfulness of trees. There may be two reasons 

 given for this, both of which may be concerned in the effect : the first is the exhaustion 

 of the soil generally ; and the second is its exhaustion of the particular sort of food pre- 

 ferred by the kind of tree. ITaough we are not so certain that every species of tree 

 requires, to a certain extent, a particular sort of food, as we are that herbaceous vegetables, 

 as wheat, oats, &c. do ; yet analogy renders the fact highly probable. At any rate, it is 

 clear that a renewal of soil must always be conducted with reference to the state of the 

 plants; a poor, limy, sandy soil may be substituted for one where the luxuriancy of the 

 plants shows that it is too rich ; and a rich loamy one for one of an opposite description, 

 where the plants are unthriving, &c. 



2173. Bending down the braiiches has been found conducive to fruitfulness; and is 

 accounted for on the same principle as ringing. It has been well exemplified by 

 Mayer (Hort. Trans, i.), in fixing clay balls to the extremities of the shoots of young 

 apple-trees after midsummer, which, depressing them, stagnated the sap, and induced the 

 production of abundance of flower-buds. 



2174. To induce the jn-oductio7i of blossoms in herbaceous ])lants, any or all of the above 

 modes may be adopted with most species, but on a large scale the first object is to place 

 the plants in a soil neither too poor nor too rich. A dry soil, not deep, and resting on a 

 dry firm bottom, is most favorable to fruitfulness, especially when joined to abundance 

 of air and light. In perennials, the effect can only be produced the second year, as in 

 trees ; but in annuals it will be immediate ; in the former class, however, where the de- 

 fect is want of nourishment, the effect may take place even the first year. Knight in- 

 duced the production of blossoms on an early variety of potatoe, by depriving the plant 

 of its tubers, as soon as they made their appearance ; by which means, the nourishment 



