C 7 1 ] 
XI*. 'Experiments on checking the too luxu- 
riant Growth of Fruit-Trees , tending to 
difpofe them to produce Fruit : In a Letter 
to Mr. Peter Collinfon, F. R. S. from 
Keane Fitzgerald, Efq\ F. R. S. 
Dear Sir, 
Read Feb. iz, "T IT 7 HEN you did me the favour of 
VV calling on me at Fulham, in. 
autumn 1755?, * &ewed you fome experiments I had 
made, in order to check the too luxuriant growth of 
young trees ; which I promifed to give you an ac- 
count of, if they fhould fucceed according to my: 
expectation. 
I had obferved a method taken to bring youn°- 
trees to bear, when planted in too rich a foil, by 
cutting away part of the bark from fome of the main 
branches. This method, as I am informed, has • 
brought them foon to bear plentifully ; but leaves an 
ugly wound, the wood continuing bare, and apt to 
rot in that part. . 
I had fome young plumb and cherry trees planted 
again ft a north pale, in. a very rich foil. The plumb- 
trees had, in^ three years, fhot forth the extremities 
of their', branches to 15 or 16 feet diftance, and had L 
quite covered and overtopped the pale. As the cut- 
ting away of any of thefe branches would make the - 
reft fhoot the ftronger, I made the following expert - 
ments, about the middle of Auguft 1758. 
I made a circular incifion on the main arms of an 
Orleans plumb-tree, .near the Item, quite through 
the . 
