The exhaustion consequent upon the production of seed, is a chief cause of the decay of plants. This explains why fruit trees are weakened or rendered temporarily unproductive, and even killed, by being allowed to ripen too large a crop of fruit, or to "overbear themselves," as it is emphatically termed by the gardener.

The thinning of fruit is consequently one of the most important operations of the garden, though one of the least generally practised. On the weaker branches of the nectarine and peach, an average space of nine inches should be between each brace of fruit, and on the most vigorous wood of the most healthy trees, they should not be nearer than six inches. This enforcement of the importance of thinning fruit, is not intended to be confined to the two trees specified; it is equally important to be attended to in all other fruit-bearers, but especially the vine, apricot, apple, and pear. It should be done with a bold fearless hand, and the perfection of that which is allowed to remain, will amply reward the grower in the harvest time for the apparent sacrifice now made. But he will not reap his reward only in this year, for the trees, thus kept unweakened by over production, will be able to ripen their wood, and deposit that store of inspissated sap in their vessels, so absolutely necessary for their fruitfulness next season.

The berries of the grape vine are best thinned from the branches with a sharp-pointed pair of scissors, care being taken to remove the smallest berries. This increases the weight and excellence of the bunches; for two berries will always outweigh four grown on the same branchlet of a bunch, besides being far handsomer, and having more juice, as compared with the skins. The average weight of the bunches on a vine may be taken, when ripe, at half a pound each, and with this data it is easy to carry into practice Mr. Clement Hoare's excellent rule for proportioning the crop to the size of the vine.

If its stem, measured just above the ground, be three inches in circumference, it may bear five pounds weight of grapes.

31/2 inches......10 lbs.

4 "......15 "

4;- "......20 "

5 "......25 "

And so five pounds additional for every half inch of increased circumference.

Thinning is a most necessary operation with plants, as well as with the fruit they bear. The roots of a plant extend in a circle round it, of which the 6tem is the centre. If the roots of adjoining plants extend within each other's circle, they mutually rob of nutriment, and check each other's growth. Thinning in the seed-bed is the remedy generally applied with too timid a hand.