DEDICATED 



REV. THEODORE LEDYARD CUTLER, D.D. 



MY HIGHLY - ESTEEMED FBIEND, Understanding, in a measure, your cheerful 

 zeal and co-operation in every philanthropic enterprise which tends in any way 

 to render the world wiser, and mankind better and happier, and knowing your 

 appreciative taste for luscious apples, permit me to dedicate to you a little vol- 

 ume on the culture of your favorite fruit. 



The foundation of our holy religion lies in the virtuous industry of the people. 

 Hence, in our efforts to render the human family the recipients of the greatest 

 good, we need to educate their lower faculties first. If we teach a nation to culti- 

 vate bountiful crops of fine wheat, and to produce large supplies of excellent ap- 

 ples and other fruit, we have secured a foundation on which it will be compara- 

 tively easy to develop the finer and nobler faculties of the soul. Taking thiu 

 view of the duties of our mortal state, it is a cheering thought that, while wo 

 played and ate apples together in the days of boyhood, we may labor side by 

 side I at laying the foundation, and yourself in lifting up and fortifying a glori- 

 ous superstructure of manhood in society, where virtue, religion, and truth aro 

 the crowning excellences. 



If we go where no boughs laden with choice fruit bend to kiss the rosy cheeky 

 of guileless children playing beneath, and where no waving grain rolls in the 

 summer breezes like a sea of gold, we shall find a pall of heathenish darkness 

 resting on the people like a mighty incubus. Hence, I send out this little book 

 to the world, with the hope that it will perform the duties of a philanthropic pio- 

 neer in preparing the rough ways of civilized life for the more complete enjoy- 

 ment of an elevated manhood. I trust it may be found a timely vade mecum in 

 the hands of young men who have a desire to establish happy homes and to cul- 

 tivate choice fruit. 



Superb apples are the product of Eden. A good boy with a hatful of Sweet 

 Boughs and a pocketful of gingerbread will always be found a more tractable pu- 

 pil when getting his lessons in the Catechism, than if the stomach were distend- 

 ed with heavy animal food of a stimulating character. A home without children 

 and destitute of apples, is like a beautiful grove without the cheering songs of 

 birds. What delightful memories dance in the sunshine of our boyhood, as our 

 thoughts revert to the homes of our early years, on fair Cayuga's fertile slope in 

 Central New York, where the pathway of life was embellished with apple-trees 

 which seldom failed to shower down golden luxuries in great profusion ! Those 

 were halcyon days in our happy experience. Pond memory delights to linger in 

 the extensive apple-orchards where bountiful supplies of Sweet Boughs, Swaars, 

 Spitzenbergs, and other choice varieties rendered material aid in smoothing the 

 asperities of our buoyant existence ; and we often wish we were boys again 

 if it were possible to begin a new career with our present experience that we 

 might again rejoice in the delight which once swelled the young heart at the 

 sight of hatfuls and pocketfuls of ruby apples. 



With my best wishes for your success in all your labors of love, and that your 

 last days may be replete with joy and gladness, 



I remain your faithful friend, 



SERENO EDWARDS TODD. 

 Brooklyn, L. T. 



