The old proverb, "Prune when your knife is sharp," has often been repeated, but if we follow it we are some time sure to cut too deep.

Winter is commonly recommended, but needs some modification. If large limbs are removed at this season, water penetrates the wounds, and freezing ruptures the tissue exposed, dying, decaying, resulting in large wounds - ulcers that never heal, sapping insidiously the vitality of the tree. Cut the limb at a time when the wound will heal, by what doctors call " the first intention." This is just before the buds swell and active growth begins in spring. But heavy pruning should be avoided - prevention is better than cure. Train the tree up in the way it should go, or grow, as well as the child, from the beginning.

The business of the fruit-grower should also be fruit-culturist. His business is not merely to gather the fruits and profits of the orchard, but to care for and cultivate it first. Water seeks its level. All forces naturally meet on equilibrium; when water rises above its level, it is only kept there by force or tension.

Man, flowers and fruits in their present degree of perfection have been elevated through cultivation; exhibiting a constant tendency to revert to their former state - they are only kept above that level by continued effort - cultivation, the power that raised them above it.

If the orchardist would eat wild fruit, let him go there to gather; neglect his orchard, and he may also gather there. All reward is earned. " As a man soweth so shall he reap".

Design is a principle of creation manifest in all God's works - the potter shapes the clay while soft to suit his design - the orchardist should also heed the principle. The care of the orchard begins with the purchase of the trees - then is the time to shape the tree - the orchard - cultivating it, remembering profit's reward is for those who toil. Mines yield their golden ore only to those who dig, and according to your dues, so shall come the reward. Greencastle, Ind.