The Country Gentleman advises to try good and poor cultivation on alternate trees in long rows, so as to make a satisfactory test as to the best methods of treatment. Would it not be better to decide first what is good and poor cultivation? In an essay on the " Cultivation of Orchards," now before us, the author says: "I would recommend every one to prune whenever he finds his knife sharp," and still another, who says: " I would not on any account prune an orchard tree. The necessity for knife pruning is in itself an evidence of bad culture."