Two forms of top are open to choice--the vase-form, or open-centered tree, and the globe-form, or close-centered tree. In the first the framework of the tree consists of a short trunk, surmounted by four or five main branches ascending obliquely. In the second the trunk is continued above the branches, forming the center of the tree, and, later being headed in, a globe-like head is formed. In New York the vase-form is nearly always chosen. In neither case is the task difficult since the peach springs almost at once into tree-form with a full complement of branches. Beginning with the second year the main branches are shortened back from one-third to one-half their growth, if heading back seem necessary, cutting to upper and inner buds so that the oblique ascending vase-form is maintained. The pruning of the third season is much the same, except that some of the interior branches should be removed to open up the heads to air and sunshine. The third season's pruning is repeated from year to year, having in mind that the slow-growing, hardy, productive sorts can be pruned much more severely than the free-growing, tender kinds. Open forks are a serious menace and are carefully avoided to lessen the danger of splitting when branches are heavily laden. About the most common mistake is that of cutting out too much wood, thereby inducing so heavy a growth in the parts that remain that winter-killing takes place; at best it makes necessary continued heavy pruning for several seasons to keep the trees in manageable size and shape. Heading-in as described in the foregoing paragraphs is necessary because the peach bears the bulk of its crop high up on its branches, which are often broken by the weight so that after a bountiful harvest the orchard looks as if a cyclone had swept through it. As the limbs lengthen, too, it becomes increasingly difficult to pick the peaches. Even with annual heading-in the bearing wood eventually gets too far from the ground and the grower may have to resort to decapitating the trees--an operation commonly known by the inapt term "dehorning." When old trees are thus to be rejuvenated the limbs are sawed off during the dormant season to within two feet or thereabouts of the trunk. The tree will then form a new head which will in a season or two set fruit-buds and bear a crop. The orchard may thus very often be renewed or even re-renewed, lengthening its life by several seasons. In thus decapitating trees, however, one season is always lost, sometimes two, and the writer questions if it is not better to give the peach a "merry life and a short one" rather than resort to decapitation to prolong its days. Most growers may well throw dehorning into the rubbish-heap of the not-worth-while.