124 On Ringing the Bark of Trees and Plants. 



AH Apple trees form an abundance of additional flower 

 buds in consequence of ringing ; but if the rins; be wide, the 

 ringed branches, especially young ones, speedily hecome 

 sickly ; il is therefore advisable, with them, not to cut rings 

 of greater width than what will be closed up at the end of the 

 same season, or early in the following year ; besides, it seems 

 that the improvement in size and beauty is obtained chiefly 

 in the first year of the ringing, therefore the rings on Apple 

 trees certainly should not exceed a quarter of an inch in 

 width, on strong branches, and they should be narrower on 

 small and weak shoots. Fresh branches on the same tree 

 ought to be annually ringed, and thus a succession of pro- 

 duce be uninterruptedly kept up. Mr. Twamley, of War- 

 wick, exhibited * to the Society, in the autumn of 1818, some 

 specimens which fully illustrate the practice of ringing Apple 

 trees. In the spring of 1818 he ringed several espalier trees ; 

 some of which were the Minshull Crab, the Courtpendu 

 Apple, and the French Crab ; the two former produced some 

 of the most remarkable specimens of the kind from the 

 ringed branches, as to beauty, which perhaps were ever seen, 

 the colours being most brilliant, whilst the Apples from the 

 unringed branches of the same trees had their usual appear- 

 ance ; but the size of neither of these kinds was altered, whilst 

 the French Crabs from the ringed branches were enlarged in 

 an extraordinary degree, as well as improved in appearance. 

 The same trees in 1818 had borne great crops on every 

 branch, whether ringed or unringed ; but in 1819, they did 

 not produce a single Apple, except on the ringed branches, 

 which then afforded a good crop, but the fruit, though very 



* See Horticultural Transactions, Vol. III. p. 367. 



