PREFACE 



TO THE 



AMERICAN EDITION. 



The small but very comprehensive work here presented 

 to the American public, is the production of one who for 

 more than thirty years was secretary of the " Caledonian 

 Horticultural Society," and who enjoyed every facility for 

 acquiring the very best information relating to the subjects 

 upon which he treats. That it has been favorably received 

 in England and Scotland, would seem very clear from the 

 fact of its having gone to a fourth edition in a very short 

 time. The treatise presents, in a condensed form, a sum- 

 mary view of the condition of horticultural knowledge in 

 Britain, and especially in Scotland, from whence we derive 

 the most intelligent and successful gardeners. The superior 

 skill of these in the management of plants and the culture 

 of many rare kinds of fruit, is doubtless owing in a great 

 degree to the extraordinary exertions they have been 

 accustomed to put forth to secure success in a climate far 

 less genial to fruits and flowers than that of most parts of 

 the United States. In endeavoring to adapt this valuable 

 manual to the condition of things in the United States, it 

 has been thought best to retain all the original matter, 

 however apparently irrelevant, since most intelligent per- 



