Journal of Horticulture and Practical Gardening, 16: 403-404 (1869)
Ringing Fruit Trees
J.C.H. Andover

Possibly the two extreme cases I am about to narrate may not only be interesting, but elicit from some of your scientific readers and practical physiologists their opinions, and under what circumstances in its immediate or remote effect the ringing of fruit trees can be beneficially adopted.

First, in the autumn of 1867, in consequence of an old Pear tree having produced no blossom, consequently no fruit, for many years, a friend advised the cutting or barking 2 inches of the trunk or one of its stems. The liber or inner bark of a stem 2 inches in diameter, was cut away 2 inches in length. The whole circle was perfect, even to the loss of some of the softer wood or alburnum.

About 6 inches above the cut the stem branched out into three less ones, each about 10 feet in length. The division was so effectual that none of the descending sap could pass back to the roots to perform its usual functions. The consequences of this operation were bloom and the ripening of two Pears last summer. No other part of the tree had bloom.

This year the appearance of the three branches above the cut stem was one mass of white blossom, there being only one blossom on any other part of the tree; and there are at this time, besides numbers that I have removed, thirty-six Pears, healthy, and apparently going on to maturity. The tree covers the wall to the extent of 22 feet. In the upper portion of the division of the bark cut, there is a very considerable enlargement, apparently from the deposition of the descending sap, but on the edge of the bark of the lower cut next the earth there is no enlargement.

Second, I have a very old Walnut tree, the trunk about 16 inches in diameter, which blossoms and bears fruit abundantly every year. The tree is hollow, has no wood, no alburnum, no pith, or medullary canal; it is now only bark, apparently extremely thickened; the solid portion of the sap separated from the water which held it in solution, and becoming deposited and cellular, supports the life of the tree.

Here are two instances of trees each bearing fruit, one denuded of its liber or bark by artificial means, the other from natural causes, having to all appearance no other means of life but the great excess of liber or bark.—J. C. H., Andover.