ee left
straight and free to about ten or twelve inches from the ground, and the
tree trained to throw its branches into the kind of form in the margin.
The branches should then be cut, i. e., about half of the white or new
wood should be cut _cleanly_ off with a sharp knife, and the cuttings
carefully gathered up.

[Illustration]

In cutting currant-trees, nearly all the white wood should be cut away,
leaving only head shoots to some one single or middle shoot of a main
branch. The under-wood, old wood, and irregular and ugly wood, should
also be cut away, as recommended at the cutting of gooseberries. In
pruning or cutting raspberries, the old wood should be cut quite away,
and the stems of the last year shortened about one third.

GRAFTING AND BUDDING.

Grafting is the transferring of a shoot of one tree into the stem of
another, called the _stock_. Into this a slit is made; and then the
scion or shoot is cut into the form of a tongue and inserted into it.
The head of the stock is then cut off in a slanting direction, and the
two are then tied together, or closely wrapped together, in moss,
covered with grafting clay. No book can give directions so clear for
grafting, as to enable the young gardener to perform it successfully. He
must see it done, try it afterwards, and then ask if he has done it
correctly; and to learn grafting and budding well, it is only necessary
to get on the right side of the gardener. The same may be said as
regards the pruning of vines, fruit and wall trees. Ten minutes'
experience with the gardener will teach more than twenty volumes on the
subject.

SHIFTING OF CROPS.

Crops must not be grown twice in rotation on the same ground. Peas and
beans should be the crop after any of the roots, such as potatoes,
carrots, and parsnips. Cabbages, and plants of that kind, may be sown
and grown intermediately. The best rotation of crops will be found in
any gardening book on the subject, and this the young gardener should
make a subject of some study.

HOW TO MANAGE A LITTLE GARDEN ALL THE YEAR ROUND.

JANUARY.

The chief wish of the little gardener this month is to take advantage of
the hard frosts, and during their prevalence, to wheel upon his ground
such manure as may be necessary. It should be wheeled in at this time,
because, while the frost is hard, the wheelbarrow can pass over the
paths and beds without doing much injury, nor will the dung and rubbish
in its moving make more