BY PINCHING.--There are other means of producing the desired effects of dwarfing and early fruiting, which should be mentioned. These consist in systematic efforts to curtail the development of the wood-growth, by judicious pinching, of the tips or points of the branches, and to prevent the rambling of the roots by root-pruning. These it is designed now to examine. Pinching is practiced in the green-house with the happiest effects, and it results in the production of the most perfect form of the plants, and most abundant display of flowers. The constant check which is thus given to the wood system, causes the sap to seek new outlets, and instead of the one limb into which it had been flowing, and causing it to be developed; its flow is now directed to the other buds along its course, which presently burst out into lateral growths, none of which are so strong as the first, and these are induced to change the character of the buds so as to result in the production of flowers and fruit. This system applied to fruit-trees has been most thoroughly carried out by the French, and is admirably described and illustrated by Du Breuil, in a work called _Scientific Culture of Fruit Trees_, and reproduced in our own language by Wm. Wardle, an English gardener and orchardist of high reputation. It is not to be expected that in this country, where fruits are so easily produced, we shall soon reach such a point of horticultural practice as to lead us to the adoption of the European system of walls and espalier training, but we shall do well to watch the application of the very important principles involved in their practice, since these may be applied to our orchards with manifest advantage. In reference to the form and management of trained trees, it is established as an axiom that their permanency is dependent upon an equal diffusion of the sap being kept up throughout the whole extent of their branches. This occurs naturally in all trees, because they develop themselves in the forms natural to them, but in our gardens and orchards we make our trees assume unnatural forms. The sap flows to the highest parts by a law which is well known, though not so well understood; as a consequence, the lower branches do not receive their needed supplies, and being smothered by those above them, they eventually die and decay, leaving a naked stem supporting a top, or the common form of the natural tree. To maintain the shape we desire--be this the pyramid, the vase, or the espalier of whatever kind--certain operations must be performed from time to time, as the conditions of the tree may indicate.