Observations on ringing Fruit Trees, 383 



Description de VEcole a" Agriculture du Museum, p. 83. 

 where he treats of the various modes of making layers, His 

 words, translated from the French, are these : " The name 

 of annular cut, or annular section, and of vertical ring, is 

 given to a space, or blank, occasioned in the circumference 

 of a shoot, branch, bough, stem, or even the trunk of a tree, 

 by the removal of a stripe of the bark, from the outer cuticle 

 down to the alburnum, not, however, including the latter. 

 The object of this operation is, either to diminish the vigour 

 of a luxuriant branch, and by detaining the sap in the upper 

 parts, to force it to yield fruit, or to dispose it to emit fibres, 

 fit to be converted into roots, for the purpose of making 

 layers. These rings are made of different sizes, according to 

 the nature of the branches, and the particular trees, on which 

 they are cut, and likewise according to the object you have 

 in view. You, generally, have them of a width of two 

 millimetres to three centimetres. It is only a few years, since 

 they have been applied to hard woods, with the intention of 

 getting layers. This operation is used in the nurseries, for 

 the multiplication of fruit-trees, and in the gardens, for the 

 increase of exotics." M. Thouin remarks, that the ring 

 must be quite cut down to the alburnum, a circumstance, 

 which has been particularly adverted to in the paper, to 

 which I have alluded. The dimension of the rings, he says, 

 may be from two millimetres to three centimetres, according 

 to the subjects on which they are practised, and the pur- 

 poses, for which they are wanted. If we reduce those deno- 

 minations to our measure, we shall find, that two millimetres 

 will be somewhat less than the twelfth part of an inch, and 

 three centimetres will approach to an inch and a half ; and we 



