Fruit-trees, when well trained, either on walls or as standards, are quite a feature in any garden. They are at all times pleasing, when pruned, in flower, and in fruit. The taste for hardy-fruit culture is greatly on the increase, if we may form an estimate by the thousands of handsome trees annually sent out by our leading nurserymen, and that find their way, in no small numbers, even north of the Grampians. We are frequently asked by farmers and amateurs to give them the names of a few good Apple-trees, and to tell them how they should be pruned; for they add, "we do not like large trees." Should this come under the notice of any similarly situated, we advise them to order any or all of the following sorts: Stirling Castle, Lord Suffield, Hill's Seedling, Cellini, Maiden's Blush, Ecklinville, Potts' Seedling, Manks Codling, Yellow Ingestrie, Winter Nonsuch, Oslin Pippin, and London Pippin. The above-named kinds are well worth growing: they are hardy, healthy, and free-bearing. The amateur should order the trees early in the autumn, and be particular not to plant them deep; give each a panful of water to settle the soil about them, and avoid tramping round their roots. Now, as regards pruning, we say, do not spare the knife.

If you want your trees well furnished to the ground, cut back every shoot of the present year's growth to 6 inches. If you wish your trees to develop themselves outward, cut to an outside bud; if there is a vacant space on the right or left hand side, then cut to that bud accordingly. Clear away all growths having an inward tendency; do not allow any shoot to come in contact with or cross over another; keep the centres of the trees or bushes open, and in a few years they will assume a circular form, and may be grown to a considerable height according to the taste of the cultivator: when so treated, the fruit is not liable to be shaken by an untimely wind. If the soil is of a loamy nature, and the trees make strong growths (in the autumn), partly lift their roots, but do not cut them back unless they have sustained some injury in the taking up; spread them carefully out and cover nicely up again. The result (the following season) will be short growths, with abundance of well-swelled fruit-buds. If the soil is poor, a dressing of rotted manure covered with soil will be found beneficial to the roots. We do not recommend summer pinching or pruning for standard trees; we leave it all till winter, when the trees are dormant and do not suffer from such operations.

We believe there are more fruit-trees spoilt for want of the knife than with it (this does not apply to orchard-house trees). The above remarks are not our theory only, but our practice. From where we write there are between three and four hundred fruit-trees under the knife. They are not all treated alike, different kinds of fruits and modes of training being considered; but as a rule we are careful to cut to a bud, and hold that where there is no rule there is an absence of regularity; therefore we protest against indiscriminate pruning. "We have even gone so far as to count the branches on each side of some of our wall-trees, and when not equal have sacrificed the extra numbers; we have also made use of a stake to raise a pyramid to its perpendicular, therefore we must confess that we admire symmetry of outline and systematic training; nevertheless it is a fact patent to fruit-growers that the great bulk of fruits sent to our markets are gathered from unpruned trees; but quality is not one of their characteristics.

This subject has been referred to recently in a leading article in a contemporary, and followed up by your intelligent correspondent, "The Squire's Gardener".

It is not for argument's sake we ask the question, Are unpruned fruit-trees admissible in a walled garden? We should be pleased to see this honestly discussed in the 'Gardener;' for ourselves, we should as soon advocate a hay-crop in the flower-garden, on the score of economy, as allow fruit-trees in a walled garden to form themselves into hedgerow timber specimens. G. Donaldson.

Keith Hall.