PREFACE. vJi. 



Where suitable land can be got, not too dear, strawberries, 

 raspberries, and the other soft or " bush fruits," currants, and 

 gooseberries can be safely relied upon; but in the great 

 majority of cases, for some years to come, the small cultivator 

 who wants to get a living by fruit, must have recourse to 

 culture under glass. To that extent, therefore, it will be found 

 probably, that the Fruiterers' Company have been somewhat 

 doubtfully advised, in having issued a manual that ignores 

 altogether glass cultivation. 



Probably no reasonable man expects to learn any trade from 

 reading alone. The cultivation of garden fruits So much 

 depends upon locality, observation, and personal experience and 

 skill, that none should look for more than a few preliminary 

 hints in a work of this size, as to what may be reasonably 

 attempted with a fair prospect of success. 



The writer has carefully endeavoured merely to "focus" 

 the comparative merits of the many kinds of fruit that can be 

 successfully grown in different parts of these islands. It only 

 remains to add that, as a rule, the " expert " who excels in one 

 fruit, and cultivates that almost solely, is probably likely to do 

 far the best at first, at any rate to secure a good name, whilst 

 the too ambitious "Jack of all trades," if he is growing for 

 market chiefly, will find that he is almost certain to come to 

 grief, if he has " too many irons in the fire," or attempts to 

 meddle with several sorts of fruit at once. Where capital is 

 invested, a certain proportion of it will always be judiciously 

 spent in obtaining the co-operation of skilled and technical 

 experience. The advice of any local head gardener in the 

 district, or respectable nurseryman may be sought with advan- 

 tage in the selection of such a well-trained foreman. Wherever 

 "houses" are erectad largely, such skilled experience is almost 

 indispensable at the start. 



