NEw YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 309 
grapevines: consists, according to the writer, “in removing a ring 
of bark from the bearing arm about an inch wide.” The effect 
sought in ringing is to produce earlier ripening of the fruit and 
larger bunches and berries. An illustration is given of the instru- 
ment used and also of that portion of the vine which had been 
ringed. The general results showed that the differences between 
the fruit on the ringed and unringed canes were largely a matter 
of season. “ The first season the effect on the fruit of some varie- 
ties was very marked. Fruit on ringed vines of Empire State was 
not only larger in-both bunch and berry but begart ripening twenty- 
one days before fruit of unringed vines.” Other varieties showed 
no stich differences. The fruit of some varieties showed a lack of 
quality when ringed and others showed a greater tendency to crack. 
The writer is of the opinion, while admitting the devitalizing effects 
of this practice on the vine, that, judiciously practiced, “ it need not 
result disastrously.”’ 
The general results are too inconclusive to indicate either that 
ringing is desirable for those who wish to grow superior fruit, or 
that it should not be practiced. The results are chiefly of value as 
furnishing a good answer to the oft-repeated advice to girdle various 
kinds of fruits with the expectation of securing abnormal crops. 
While it may be generally taken for granted that any horticultural 
practice which has been known as long as ringing does not offer any 
great rewards or it would be more generally used, nevertheless it is 
sometimes quite difficult to point out to some over-enthusiastic fruit 
grower wherein his methods fail, or where evidence can be found to 
prove its exact value. : 
FERTILITY OF GRAPES. 
One of the grape questions taken up by the Station at a com- 
paratively early day was that of self-fertility or self-sterility of 
varieties. In order to appreciate what this Station did in an investi- 
gation on this subject, it would be necessary to recapitulate what 
was previously known. Engelmann and other botanists who studied 
the grape had found that both among the wild and the cultivated 
sorts there were many which were not capable of bearing fruit 
when standing alone; that is, pollen from another vine is required 
in order that fruit should be borne. One or two cultivated varieties 
were known to be self-sterile and others were supposed to be so. 
No one had ever tested any large number of varieties to determine 
their capacity in this respect. 
