264 On Improving the Productiveness of Fruit Trees. 



luxuriance may be checked, and fruitfulness promoted, by 

 stripping off pieces of the bark, from the stem and the 

 branches. He notices, likewise, the practice of making 

 notches, cross-wise, in the bark, for a similar purpose. 

 What is thus recommended for Pear-trees, may be applied 

 to all other fruit-trees, under similar circumstances. Care 

 should be taken, in cutting the notches, that they do not 

 reach the pith. Nicol (in his Forcing and Fruit Gar- 

 dener, 4th edit, page 240) suggests the expedient of cutting 

 the roots of a luxuriant tree. That training has an effect 

 upon fruitfulness, by operating as a check upon the sap, 

 is generally conceded. Our old friend Van Oosten 

 already was aware of this, though he does not seem to 

 have made much application of this remedy; for, page 11, 

 he says, " A bough that is bent, commonly bears much 

 fruit, but small, except it be bent from the beginning. 

 The reason is clear, the pith of the wood runs crooked, 

 and so its sap does not flow violently/' Another method 

 of checking the sap is mentioned in a paper published 

 in our Transactions, Vol. II. page 222. The whole seems to 

 lead to this conclusion, that luxuriance in trees and fer- 

 tility are at variance : and that the vigour which produces 

 shoots and branches in abundance, is subversive of what 

 we value more, namely fruitfulness. The growing principle 

 must be moderated, to answer the gardener's purpose. This 

 may perhaps also be inferred from the circumstance, that 

 aged trees, or such as are in a weak, or even sickly state, 

 are often very productive. I will not presume to account 

 for those facts ; but as facts, I believe, they must be admitted. 

 Whether it is the abundance of the sap, or the rapidity with 

 which it moves, that proves an obstacle to the formation, of 



