PRUNING. 



343 



the same effect as ringing. In the case of fruit trees it is frequently executed 

 on the branches to produce blossom buds, and by the same means seedling 

 plants are sooner th^o^^^l into blossom than they otherwise would be. On 

 some trees and shrubs it has been found much more efficient than on others ; 

 it has little ejBFect on stone fruits ; and while it succeeds on the gooseberry, it 

 is said not to do so on the currant. Knight, Ward (777), and Pollini {Dec. 

 Phys. I. p. 151) found that it increased the specific gravity of the wood 

 above the incision, as compared ^Tith that below it, at the rate of one to nine 

 in some cases, and more ia others. We have seen (6l7) that ringing is 

 favourable to the production of roots from cuttings, and it seldom fails to effect 

 the setting of fruits when performed on branches just before they ai-e coming 

 into blossom. Judiciously applied, it may often serve as a substitute both for 

 root pruning tuid top pi-uning. 



771. Disbudding is the removal of buds early in spring, just when they 

 are beginning to develop their leaves, and is commonly performed with the 

 finger and thumb ; the object being to lessen the number of shoots or of 

 blossom buds to be produced. By lessening the number of blossom buds, it 

 will add to the strength and probability of setting of those which remain, 

 and the same increase of strength will take place in respect to the shoots, 

 whilst, at the same time, the number of these is reduced to an approximation 

 of that which can ultimately be retained for training. By applying this 

 mode of praning judiciously on such trees as the peach, apricot, and plum, 

 especially when trained against walls, the use of the knife may be in a great 

 measure dispensed with, excepting for cutting out diseased or decaying shoots. 

 Disbudding is one of the most important summer operations in the manage- 

 ment of wall- trees. " It is necessar^^ to bear m mind that on the quantity of 

 foliage with which a tree is furnished, depends the increase in diameter of 

 the stem and branches, the extension and increase of roots, and the produc- 

 tion of &uit ; and, yet, that no more leaves should be retained than can be 

 folly exposed to light. In the case of a healthy tree, not one-half of the 

 shoots and foliage it naturally produces could be thus exposed when trained 

 against a waU. If all the branches of a round-headed standard tree were 

 disposed in a flattened or fan-like manner against a wall, they would be 

 greatly over-crowded ; for, instead of a surface equal to that of a sphere, the 

 foliage would be reduced within a diametrical section of the same, affording 

 a surface of only one quarter of that which they formerly had. Hence, it is 

 evident that a considerable reduction of shoots produced by wall-trees must 

 be effected in some way or other. This is partly done by shortening and 

 thinning at the winter pruning, and partly by the process of disbudding in 

 summer. In removing the buds care should be taken not to injure the bark 

 of the shoot. The buds ought not to be all disbudded at the same time ; 

 the fore- right ones should be first removed, and the others successively, at 

 intervals of several daj^s, in order not to check the circulation of sap by a too 

 great privation of foliage at once." — {Gard. Chron. for 1841, p. 380.) 



772. Disleafing. — By taking the leaves off a growing shoot as fast as they 

 are unfolded, no buds are matured in their axils ; and thus while the super- 

 fluous vigour of the tree is expended, no sap is returned to the root. Dis- 

 leafing in this manner the summer's shoots of a tree as they proceed in 

 growth, Mr. Beaton, by whom the system is detailed, (Gard. Mag. for 1837, 

 p. 204,) found the simplest mode of reducing the strength of an over- 

 luxuriant tree. By this method, in three years, he reduced healthy, vigorous 



