DWARFING. 155 



It is a well established principle, that the chief growth 

 by extension will be made by the terminal bud, and this 

 should either be removed by cutting back, or left upon the 

 limb, according as we desire to grow our wood ; if exten- 

 sion of -the shoot be our leading object, all the lateral buds 

 must be subordinated. So also, it is well known, that all 

 circumstances, which retard the circulation, are followed 

 by a diminution of the wood-growth, and by the develop- 

 ment of flower- buds. 



The culture of the strawberry affords one of the best 

 illustrations of the benefits and effects of pinching. The 

 runners of this plant may be viewed in the light of wood- 

 growth; or the increase of the plant by extension ; even 

 though these slender threads are not permanent, and they 

 only serve to convey a bud to a distance from the parent 

 plant, and place it under favorable circumstances for the 

 formation of a natural layer. They are but annual pro- 

 ductions, and hence there is no considerable deposit of 

 woody matter, as in the limbs of trees, but they are thrown 

 out from the parent plant just like woody branches, and 

 are so much substance withdrawn from it, which, if re- 

 tained or thrown back upon the plant, would have resulted 

 in an enlargement of the main stem of the strawberry 

 plant, and in the development of buds upon the crown, 

 which become stored with the proper juices that result in 

 the production of more abundant blossom buds. The 

 lesult, however, is so admirable an illustration of this 

 important element in the management of permanent and 

 woody fruit-trees, that we may well look at an herbaceous 

 plant, be it even so humble an individual as the prostrate 

 earth-berry, as our ancestors called the delicious Fragaria, 



