A CORRESPONDENT has by means of some queries placed this matter before us, and we have thought it of sufficient importance to lift it out of the ordinary space allotted to answers to correspondents, and give it a more prominent position. "A. E." asks for some brief instructions as to the shoot-pruning of small-bush Apple and Pear trees. He finds, as many others have found to their dismay, that gardeners differ very much about it; and while some advocate the constant nipping back of the shoots to two or three eyes all the summer, others state this plan, if closely followed, will not throw them into fruit-buds, but will cause them to make root, and then large gross shoots will be the result. The advocates of the last method find twice a-year to be enough, and recommend that it be done at the end of June and late in the autumn. Who wonders that amid this chaos of opinions "A. E." asks for some enlightenment?

Curiously enough, "A. E.'s" query comes just at a time when the question has been presented to ourselves in a practical form. We have in our garden, the soil of which is a dark stiff clayey loam, resting on a bed of London clay within 2 feet of the surface, certain pyramid and bush Apple and Pear trees, the former on the Paradise, the latter on the Quince stock. Planted in the autumn of 1865, all the trees have done well, and - the Pear-trees especially - made strong growth. The system of pruning pursued had been up to the present year that mentioned by "A. E." as the "nipping off the shoots to two or three eyes at short intervals during the summer." The trees bore slightly in 1867, and since then but only very sparely indeed.

Regarding the Pears, there has been this season a good crop on Louis Bonne of Jersey; spare crops on Alexander Lambre, Easter Beurre, and Williams's Bon Chretien; and not a fruit on Beurre Diel and Duchesse d'Angouleme. It did appear that the constant pinching back of the shoots to two or three eyes caused the tree to make vigorous root-growth, and this reacted on the tree in the form of bringing out numbers of shoots all over it, while but very few fruit-buds were formed, or none at all. This season we altered the plan of pruning, and all the leading shoots have been allowed to make a free growth, but only one permitted to remain when two or three had issued from the same stem of a branch. All lateral growths were kept cut back to three or four eyes. The leading shoots have now perfected, and are maturing the summer growth; and by Christmas these will be cut back to five or more eyes, according as the pyramidal shape of the tree can be best secured. Each tree is now clothed with fruit-spurs, and plentiful crops next season may be fairly predicted.

Similarly as in the case of the Pears, the Apples were subjected to the same process of constant pinching back. King Pippin has yielded a fair crop; Early Margaret and Cox's Orange Pippin only a very few; Nelson's Glory, usually a free bearer, and some others, none at all. The same course of treatment as applied to the Pears this summer fell to the lot of the Apples. There is not a tree without fruiting spurs; and with but one exception, and that a bad situation, there is the promise of a very plentiful crop for another season. The drought notwithstanding - and the London district has suffered very severely from it - each Apple-tree has made a fine vigorous growth, to the manifest improvement of the plants in general. Hitherto the trees, both Pears and Apples, were continually making young wood till late in the season; now there is no appearance of young growth, nor has there been for the past month; and the growth of the summer, as presented in the unshortened main shoots, is ripening off admirably.

Some bush Apples and Plums planted last November have been similarly treated, and though sorely tried by the drought, there is every appearance of abundant bloom.

Whether this mode of treatment will produce permanent effects of a character like those that now result, is as yet "not proven." Finding by the non-fruitfulness of the trees that the mode of pruning previously carried out was producing results of a totally different character to those wished for, we felt the urgent need for some modification of the pruning process; with what effect has been shown. Thinking the best way to answer our correspondent would be to lay before him our own experience, we have done so, and leave it with him. Should he be induced to follow it, or apply it in part, we shall be glad to learn another season how his trees fared; meanwhile some of our readers will perhaps give us their experience, and "A. E." and other inquirers the benefit of their advice. R. D.