Now you are on the road to progress, provided you have made no mistake in the selection of your trees. The purposes for which you intend your fruit is highly important. You should well consider at the outset if for family or market use. This is a business which requires a long look ahead, for it is said, "He who plants pears looks ahead for his heirs." Caution should be used in procuring your stock; little should be planted that is not fairly tested on the Island, purchased of parties who can be fully relied upon to give you what you want. Do not buy your stock of parties who carry labels in their pockets to make to order what you want out of the same bundle of trees. Now, having your trees set out in a proper manner, of such varieties as you desire, the next important step is to bring the trees into usefulness. My plan is to use bone--fine bone--very freely about every three years. Another important matter is that of trimming. "Fire purifies," and the knife regulates the grand balance or equilibrium between roots and tops. In most cases the top outgrows the roots, the consequence of which is an ultimate weakness of the tree. It is thrown into excessive fruiting, disease, and premature decay. To avoid this result, use the knife when required. Thin out the inside branches when small, and if the tree does not make a satisfactory growth, cut back half way to the ground. We will suppose that you have got your trees growing nicely, and they have begun to bear fruit. There are other important steps to be taken, which will be of little cost to you. Provide a wind-break for the orchard. Evergreens answer the purpose, being a protection against the wind. Having this matter attended to, there are other enemies with which we must contend. I refer to the apple and peach tree borers. The former will live in the tree for three years, if unmolested; the latter, one year only. They are very easily destroyed by looking over the trees and taking them out with a knife; or maybe prevented from touching the trees by wrapping a piece of felt paper, 8 inches wide, around the tree near the ground, the bottom being covered with dirt and the top tied tightly above. The pear is not generally disturbed by these insects--only the apple, peach, and quince. We have another insect very destructive to the plum, peach, cherry, and apple--the _curcutio_, or plum weavel. This season for the first time in twenty years we have gathered a small crop of that very desirable plum, the Purple Favorite. We simply threw air-slaked lime over the trees nearly every morning for from four to six weeks, from the time the tree was out of bloom. Peach trees should be treated in the same manner. Another method of fighting this insect is to spread a sheet under the tree, and with a blow jar off the little Turk and secure him on the sheet. But I consider the lime procedure the less trouble and more effective. The tent caterpillar, which is easily seen, should be destroyed at once.