INTRODUCTION. 11 



under the most favorable circumstances, to obtain any thing 

 like a supply of fruit for the use of a family. 



There is no way a man can so effectually rear a monu- 

 ment to posterity, and one for which he shall receive their 

 blessing, as by planting a fruitful apple orchard that shall 

 yield a luxury in its wealth of delicious golden fruit. To 

 the young, there is nothing about the farm more attractive 

 than the orchard. They have a constant, insatiable appe- 

 tite for fruit for apples, peaches, cherries, pears, nectar- 

 ines, grapes, melons. The country is not the country with- 

 out them. The green fields, the majestic forest-trees, the 

 cool springs and the meandering streams, are all engraved 

 indelibly upon their memories. And when they review the 

 happy days of childhood, and think of 



"The orchard, the meadow, the deep-tangled wild-wood," 



fond memory lingers longest about the old apple-trees that 

 have so often filled the pockets, hat, and baskets with boun- 

 tiful supplies of luscious fruit. 



The production of a fruitful apple orchard, and the an- 

 nual care and protection of the growing crop of fruit, con 

 stitute not only a delightful, elegant, and scientific occupa- 

 tion, but, where the locality is such as to afford market fa- 

 cilities, it is really one of the most profitable in the whole 

 range of agriculture. Good ripe apples are not only ob- 

 jects of great beauty, highly conducive to health, but they 

 are an important article of domestic consumption and 

 household economy. They furnish the best and cheapest 

 desserts, that enter largely into a variety of dishes. They 

 supply tfye table during the summer and fall months, when 

 crude, dried, and preserved, and they last through the win- 

 ter. Good apples are at all seasons, and in all their various 

 forms, useful and delightful, both in health and in sickness. 

 When we contemplate the perfection to which apples have 



