Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1879 — Girdling Fruit Trees. [ARTICLE]

Girdling Fruit Trees.

The statement was made by some one not long since in the Register that it was advantageous in making vines and fruit-trees to bear sooner ana moro abundantly to girdle the trees. Since then we have been frequently inquired of how and when such girdling should' be done, as well as for a reasonable solution of why it should have that effect. The agricultural editor has never experimented in that way, but some ten years ago, on Melrose Farm, a span of spiritca horses, hitched to a wagon, got away from the driver and ran through the orchard, running over and badly barking some dozen trees. This was early in June. The next year these trees, and especially on the limbs most barked and scarred, were full ot fruit, while there was a very limited quantity on the balance of the orchard. But what is the philosophy of this girdling trees or vines to make them bear fruit? Trees and vines do not grow merely by the absorption of moisture and material direct from the earth. It is true the roots take up from the earth the water* and mineral matter necessary for plant growth, but it does not go directly to the part where it is to stay. But these go up, not between the bark and wood, out in the body of the tree or vine to the leaves, where it is combined with the carbon which is absorbed by the leaves, and goes through Nature’s secret laboratory of combining water, mineral and carbon, until they are sufficiently digested to be used as wood growth, when it passes downward and is deposited in the infinitessimal cells beneath the bark. So that the growth is made by the downward flow of this prepared material for wood growth. Now, if the tree or vine be girdled, on the body or limbs, this prepared sap cannot pass below where the bark is taken off, and consequently that part above the girdle receives more than its share of sap, while none is supplied to the body below the girdle. Thus the limbs are crowded with growth food, which causes the development of fruit buds —makes the limbs grow faster and the fruit larger. But this process, if the main body of the tree is thus operated on, will in the end ruin the tree. The body and roots must have nourishment as well as the branches, and this girdling deprive them of this support. If this system is practiced at all, it should be on only a part, leaving the ungirdled limbs to supply nourishment to the balance of the tree. June is the time girdling is done, which is only intended as preparatory to the ne*t year’s crop. It is claimed, however, that girdling in June makes a more perfect development of tho fruit then on the limbs. ; - >-.. ' Girdling is done by taking out I rim of bark entirely around the tree, limb or vine, not over one fourth of an inch wide. Sometimes this space is healed up tho first year, but certainly the second year, if the tree be not too feeble and sickly. We advise all to go slowly and carefully in this matter. But it is worthy of an experiment by all. But yet there are many things which ’heed studying, and diverse matters should be* reconciled. One contends that girdling stops the rapid growth of the tree, and causes a more abundant fruitage. Another that girdling oauses an abnormal growth of the limb, and the largely -increased production of fruit v Great are the mysteries of Nature. — lowa Stale Register. A man and bis wife can never agree upon what constitutes a tidy-looking room; a woman will grow * irritablewhen She finds half a dozen cigar stumps sticking to the scorched man-tel-piece, and he can’t be expected to keep calm when he finds a bunch of lonjs “ combings” in his shaving-mug. I*hky were strolling along in the moonlight. Something put Tt into his head that She wouldn’t be very angry, if he snatched a kiss; he resolved to do it, but in the ecstacy of the moment he forgot that he had a lighted cigar in his mouth, and they don’t stroll }n the moonlight any more.— New Haven Register. !