Let me here drop a caution or two. In pruning, as much as possible banish the knife; never allow superfluous shoots to get beyond the power of the finger and thumb, it being better management to stop them while young and tender, when their removal can produce no mischief, than to delay till they become older and firmer, when the necessary use of the knife must cause a large loss of sap, to the positive injury of the plant, causing needless exhaustion by allowing a super-abundant growth that has ultimately to be removed.

Accidents, it is said, will happen in the best regulated families. It would be a remarkable season that passed without the destruction of one or more main stems, generally caused by high winds and careless tying, when the knife must come into play.

In such cases cut the stem cleanly off near the bottom, if the portion left be solid; nothing more need be done; but if hollow, examine if it contains water, and if so, take it out with a small bit of sponge tied to a piece of stick; then cover the orifice with any thing that will exclude water. I use a piece of India rubber cloth, or a wooden pill-box, for as sure as water finds a lodgment there, just so sure will the remaining stems rot off, rendering all previous labor vain; shoots will by and by start from the bulb, but too late to be of any service.

Keep a sharp look-out now for premature flower-buds, and pick them off. As a general thing, I never let a bud get larger than a pea until the first week in September; all are taken off. Were I to allow them to bloom when they pleased, they would be utterly exhausted before their blooming season proper, September and October, arrived, leaving me, when I wanted them, without a bloom worth looking at; therefore my object is to carry them, in all their undiminished vigor, through burning July and August, without a bloom upon them, into the more congenial temperature of September and October, when I encourage them to put their best buds foremost. .

Let us return to the thinning process, which, if carried out as directed, the plants, about the beginning of August, each with its five leading stems without a lateral, ought to present a fine healthy appearance. The pruning, up to this period, may by some be considered severe, but I find it absolutely necessary to secure for the future of the plant the most perfect circulation of air.

Having, then, gained this all-important point, I cease pinching out for the present, and allow the next four laterals on the centre stem to grow, one on each side, vis-a-vis, as at the beginning, pinching out the succeeding ones as before. On the side stems I allow three to grow, the outward and the two side ones, taking away the one pointing inward, always keeping an eye on free ventilation; and as the laterals of these 16 additional shoots appear, take them off until their flower-buds show themselves. In a short time these young shoots will fill the spaces between the main stems, affording abundance of material to work upon, and forming a dome which, when covered with blooms, as it soon will be, is a sight never to be forgotten.

Hitherto our operations have been general, that is, all have had the like treatment; in future it must be varied to suit the nature or habit, and the manner of blooming of the individual plant, for they not only vary in these respects, but, like other beauties in the world, some are positively capricious, being all that one can desire in one locality or soil, and good for nothing in another. They certainly open a large field for observation, and here the subject becomes very suggestive, but it is nut necessary that I enlarge further than to give the leading characteristics, in order to guide us in our future management.

Varieties, having a crowded mass of foliage, are those that require severe pruning; if their flowers are numerous and small, a liberal disbudding must take place; if constant and true to character, disbud as soon as you can get your fingers about them. Duchess of Wellington and Conqueror are types of this class, requiring the severest treatment in both respects.

There are many varieties, exquisite in every point, but so uncertain, such as Beauty of Bath, Duke of Wellington, Agincourt, Beauty of Slough, Yellow Beauty, and others, that may, perhaps, give a single good bloom or two at most during the whole season. With such sorts we must be very cautious in disbudding, having patience until we ascertain by the formation of the bud whether or not it is worth retaining; but I need not waste space on these, which I merely notice to show the treatment, and which I invariably discard, however beautiful, when, after various modes of treatment, I find that they will have their own way - ground-room and labor being with amateurs too valuable to bestow on any of them that don't yield a fair proportion of good blooms during a large part, if not the whole of the season. Another class presents buds with hard, scaly eyes, of which Lady Paxton, Mrs. Eliza Burgess, (new,) and Tyrian Prince, are types, whose centres in the early part of the season are slow in perfecting themselves; so much so, that often before being fully developed the back petals drop, rendering such blooms valueless for exhibition or competition purposes; the only remedy in such cases is more moderate pruning, and rapid growth, with high feeding.

As the season advances, and these varieties somewhat exhaust themselves, they will be found to open freely without losing their back petals; they are a valuable class where late blooms are desired.

The next and last class is of a character diametrically opposite, having centres soft and loose. I call them the deceptive class, for to all appearance there is nothing wrong with the bud selected; and it is after daily watching its development with delight, and inwardly rejoicing in the hope of to-morrow completing a marvel of perfection, that all our high anticipations are often dashed to the ground by the unlooked-for fatal spot - the yellow disk. Types of this class are found in Empress, Amazon, Miss Caroline, and others. They have often deceived me, but I continue to grow them because of their always yielding a fair quota of perfect blooms under proper treatment. If there is one portion of the Dahlia ground poorer than another, I plant them there, growing them very slowly, and less vigorously, or, in other words, half starving them.