ture, applied in the preceding summer, in such cases, he has found to answer all the purposes of ringing, with far less injurious-consequences to the tree.

Girdling, according to Mr. Knight, by causing the current of the sap, while descending from the leaves through the bark, to become arrested in its progress, it accumulates above the decorticated place, whence it is repulsed, and again carried upwards, to be expended in an increased production of blossom buds and of fruit; while the part below, being but ill supplied with nutriment, ceases almost to grow, and in consequence it operates feebly in impelling the ascending current of sap through the decorticated space. And the parts above, being, in consequence, less abundantly supplied with moisture, the early maturity is thus powerfully accelerated, as is always the case in a drought, from whatever cause produced.

Mr. Knight, from his long experience, is not friendly to the practice of ringing or girdling in any mode, except only in those few cases, where blossoms cannot otherwise be obtained, or where a single crop of very early fruit exceeds the value of the tree.

Decortication may be practised alternately, on portions of the same tree in alternate years.

SUBS. 2d. DEBARKING. Debarking, according to Mr. Neill, is a practice first brought into notice by Sir Joun Sinclair, in 1815, in a pamphlet. It consists in paring off, in winter, all the outer bark of the stem and principal branches, down to the liber, or inner concentric bark. The effect is, that such plants grow more vigorously, and the quantity and quality of the fruit are greatly augmented.

Mr. Loudon has recorded, (Mag. Vol. VII. p. 662,) that this operation has been declared, by one of the best practical men in the Netherlands, a never-failing method of greatly improving the quality and size of the fruit on apple and pear trees, and vines. At the winter pruning, which is given there in February, he cuts off, with his common hooked pruning knife, all the outer bark down to the liber, of every tree above eight or ten years old; not so deeply, however, with the young, as with the old trees. It is as serted by those who have witnessed, that this man's prac tice has never failed of being successful. And another, who has tried it in that country, asserts, that since he had

practised it, he has always had larger and better flavored fruit. This practice, says Mr. Loudon, “is not uncommon in England with apple and pear trees, and very general with regard to vines under glass."

SUBS. 3d. BENDING THE LIMBS. This appears to be the most simple, easy, and effectual mode of rendering trees productive. When judiciously performed, its effects are very extraordinary.

The effects appear to be perfectly understood by the Chinese in training their dwarfs. Its effects are also exemplified in the mode of training trees en quenouille, which come into bearing earlier, and bear more abundantly.

Dwarfing is effected by inoculating fruit trees on stocks of comparatively slow growth; the circulation is in consequence retarded, and the effect thus produced is somewhat like that produced by girdling. The apple is dwarfed by being inoculated on the Paradise or Doucin stock; the peach on a slow-growing plum stock; and the pear by being inoculated on the quince stock ; -a new mode of dwarfing I shall presently explain;- by means simply of bending, prodigious crops are produced on the vine; [see the article on the cultivation of the vine ;] also on the fig; for by this mode Mr. Knight has obtained eight crops in a year. [See the article on the fig.] The system is equally applicable to every species of fruit tree. It consists in bending every limb or twig, to a position below the horizontal, while it is yet in a vigorously-growing state, generally the last of June; with some kinds, which have a prolonged vegetation, it may, perhaps, with more advantage, be deferred till July, as in the case of the peach. The effect produced in the first instance is a momentary suspension of the growth; the juices are concentrated, and form fruit buds, for the production of fruit in the following year.

According to Mr. Neill, training the bearing shoots of pear trees downwards, generally causes them to produce fruit the second year, which would seldom otherwise produce fruit under six or seven years. And Mr. Knight recommends to bend the young, luxuriant shoots of the peach, instead of shortening, [as recommended in the article below.] They thus produce the finest possible bearing wood for the next year.

SUBS. 4th. PARTICULAR MODES OF PRUNING AND TRAINING. Mr. Dalbret, superintendent of the compartments in the Royal Gardens, devoted to the culture of fruit trees and economical plants, (near Paris,) has delivered a course of lectures on Pruning, in the school of Practical Horticulture. He has practised on his theory for a number of years, and is therefore enabled to appreciate its value. "Among the operations which are very rarely practised, and which are scarcely known at a distance from the capital, he has insisted, with propriety, upon the eradication of all useless buds, which occasion more vigor in the branches destined to produce good wood and fruit; and upon the necessity of not leaving too many lateral shoots or twigs, which exhaust the tree; but few should be preserved for yielding fruit each year, and the others should be cut off within a half an inch of the branch, which will cause fruit spurs to appear. He has also demonstrated the utility of pinching or cutting off the ends of the shoots, particularly of stone-fruit trees, to check the excessive vigor of the main branches, and to cause the branches which usually consume the sap, to yield fruit; the operation consists in cutting off the yet herbaceous, or young and tender shoots, when they have attained the rength of six or eight inches, at a half an inch, or at most an inch, above the old wood; if it is done later, the operation will be injurious, instead of insuring fruit for the third year." [New England Farmer, Vol. VIII. This article is from the researches of the Hon. H. A. S. Dearborn, and from the Annales, d'Horticulture.] For some further particulars, see CURRANT. Also see PEACH.

During the autumn of 1840, and while at Paris, I occasionally visited the GARDEN OF PLANTS, where I saw the whole system of pruning as practised by Mr. Dalbret himself. The pear trees at that place are trained in perfect quenouilles or pyramids, with branches quite to the ground, and by the system of spur pruning. By this system the tree is only suffered to advance upwards in proportion to its growth in a lateral direction. Thus pyramidally trained, a tree will retain its branches in a vigorous state, quite to the ground, as all the lateral shoots receive an equal benefit from the sun, and rain, and dews, and the tree produces abundant crops, from the summit to the base. By other modes of training, the lower limbs are liable to

decay and to perish. The trees which I saw thus trained, at the GARDEN OF PLANTS, were set in very compact order, or about seven feet asunder; but Mr. Dalbret prefers ten feet asunder each way, as the most suitable distance for pear trees thus trained. I found this system of training and of spur pruning was perfectly understood by the experienced cultivators in the vicinity of Paris. Mr. Dalbret has published a work on the subject.

Spur Pruning, as practised on the pear and other fruit trees, by experienced cultivators in the vicinity of Boston, is thus performed: Near the base of the young wood of the year, is always to be seen a cluster of eyes; in the middle of July they cut off the twig above the eye which is next above the cluster of eyes which are at the base, so that only the upper eye bursts. The middle of September they cut below this eye, and the next year numerous fruit spurs proceed from this cluster, which will produce fruit in the following year, or the year after. Vines are also pruned by this mode.

SUBS. 5th. DWARFING. DWARFING.Grafting and its Effects.The effect of grafting in rendering trees suddenly productive is well known. This effect is produced on the principles before explained.

Dwarfs are extensively used in France for almost every variety of fruit tree, particularly those called Quenouilles. And they are asserted by them and the English writers to be not only admirably adapted to large fruits, as they are not so much exposed to high winds, but for pears, more especially, they are declared to produce better fruit. A new mode of dwarfing the pear has lately been introduced to practice in France. The quince is inoculated on the pear stock, and after this has grown a year, the pear is inoculated into the quince, an inch above the insertion of the preceding year. The advantages of this mode are many; the section of the quince, being thus elevated, is not so liable to the attacks of the borer as at the surface of the earth. The roots of the pear and those of the quince, require different soils. [See PEAR and QUINCE.] It is asserted that the pear should be dwarfed only for the production of summer fruit. As an argument to prove that the fruit of the pear thus produced cannot partake of the austere quality of the quince, it is asserted that both

the quince and the pear are alike nourished from the earth by the same food, in quality and substance; the leaves being exclusively the laboratory in which the juices are prepared which form the fruit. Even the difference in the varieties of fruit of the same species, in taste and flavor, is supposed to be owing to no other cause than some different and peculiar formation or property of the leaf. The Chinese form their dwarfs on the most fruitful limbs of bearing trees; these, when rooted, are separated, and when the fruit is at maturity, being much in demand in China, they bring a price in proportion to the crop they bear; especially oranges, peaches, plums, grapes, &c. They even extend their practice to flowering and other ornamental trees.

The following mode, as practised in China, is extracted from the account of John Livingstone, Esq., of Macao See Vol. iv. of the Lond. Hort. Trans.

In the spring, at the time when the trees of fruit or of ornament are in blossom, they commence by selecting those branches which are most loaded with blossoms, and remove the bark quite round the branch, to the depth of about half its diameter. This part is covered with a large ball, of a composition similar to grafting clay. For large branches of elm, &c., a covering of straw or coarse cloth is used; but for the orange, peach, &c., the composition is of itself sufficient.

When it has been ascertained that the roots formed are sufficient to preserve the living system, and this time varies from six weeks to three months, according to circumstances, from the commencement of the operation, — the branches are separated, and after being removed to pots, their fruitfulness is preserved by cramping their growth; by confining their roots in very contracted earthen vessels; in carefully regulating and stinting their supplies of nourishment; in bending and contorting their limbs into many fanciful shapes, and confining them thus by wires. In the province of Fo-kien, where the best dwarfs are said to be formed, to entice ants to destroy the heart wood, sugar is introduced into small openings made for this purpose.

Staunton, in his account of the embassy of Lord Macartney to that country, has stated that straw was used with the clay, and a vessel of water is placed above, with an aperture sufficient to allow the water to fall slowly, in