We consider it important to shorten back all fruit-trees, shrubs, and vines when transplanting. It lessens, by reducing the number of buds, the demand for supply on the Toots as soon as that laid up in the bud is exhausted, and it gives increased vitality and vigor to the remaining buds, by giving to them the supply that would have been devoted to those removed, had they been left to remain. There is, however, room for study in the practice of heading-in, because of the vigor of growth and power of producing strong new shoots being much greater in some sorts than others. The peach, for instance, may be cut back to within two feet of the crown, leaving not a limb or twig, and yet the tree in the ensuing fall will be found, under good cultivation, to have made four or five strong shoots, each as many feet long, and with abundant lateral branches. Pursue the same course with the apple, and nine times out of ten the result will be only a few feeble shoots of four to six inches, with a dead tree the following spring. The pear when worked on the quince will bear much more severe pruning back than when on the pear stock; and further, some varieties will endure more severe pruning than others.

The grape, when cut back to two or three buds, grows vigorously; but if left unpruned, it struggles a year or two, produces a few imperfect bunches, and is dead. These are some of the many variations that an observing horticulturist will notice on short practice, and which will soon cause him to feel confidence in the transplanting of trees at any age, provided he be allowed to prune them back according to their age and habits.

Remove winter covering as soon as the frost has left the ground, otherwise there is liability of many leaves and buds becoming injured from too close confinement by the packing of the mulch.

Mounds of earth that have been built around the trees to protect them from mice, should be leveled down.