14 PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION. 



method of selection and careful propagation the primal vigor 

 sho\Mi by the varieties which justly become popular may 

 be but the starting-point on a career of well-doing that can 

 scarcely be limited. Is it asked, " Why is not this done by 

 plant-growers? " You, my dear reader, may be one of the 

 reasons. You may be ready to expend even a dollar a plant 

 for some untested and possibly valueless novelty, and yet be 

 unwilling to give a dollar a hundred for the best standard 

 variety in existence. If I had Wilsons propagated as I have 

 described, and asked ten dollars a thousand for them, nine 

 out of ten would write back that they could buy the variety 

 for two dollars per thousand. So they could ; and they 

 could also buy horses at ten dollars each, and no one could 

 deny that they were horses. One of the chief incentives of 

 nurserymen to send out novelties is that they may have 

 some plants for sale on which they can make a profit. 

 When the people are educated up to the point of paying 

 for quality in plants and trees as they are in respect to live- 

 stock, there will be careful and capable men ready to supply 

 the demand. 



Beginning on page 375, the reader will find supplemental 

 bits of varieties which have appeared to me worthy of men- 

 tion at the present time. I may have erred in my selection 

 of the newer candidates for favor, and have given some un> 

 warranted impressions in regard to them. Let the reader 

 remember the opinion of a veteran fruit-grower. *^ No true, 

 accurate knowledge of a variety can be had," he said, "un- 

 til it has been at least ten years in general cultivation." 



I will now take my leave, in the hope that when I have 

 something further to say, I shall not be unwelcome. 



E. P. R. 



CORNWALL-ON-THE-HUDSON, N. Y. 



January 16, 18S6. 



