INTRODUCTION. y 



more useful is the occupation. Clergymen, professional men, merchants, tradesmen, 

 well-to-do shopkeepers, whose days are spent in close attention to other duties in life, find 

 relaxation and pleasure in their gardens, large or small, in the country or in the suburbs 

 of cities and towns. Many of these classes do more might, and, it may be safely said, will 

 find fruit culture an engaging, not to say fascinating, pursuit, while the results may be 

 very delightful ; and not the less so if good crops are attained by solicitous attention, and 

 under difficulties which have been successfully overcome. It is then felt that success has 

 been in reality won, and is appreciated accordingly, for it is happily not a trait in the 

 national character to set a high value on acquisitions which have cost little or nothing in 

 the obtaining. Nor is the satisfaction derivable from fruit culture to be measured by 

 the extent of the operations. It does not in the least depend on that, but entirely on the 

 exercise of skill as shown by excellence in production ; thus it follows, and the fact is 

 well established, that the possessor of a small vinery, filled with splendid grapes of his own 

 growing, values it as highly as a nobleman or a prince can his imposing ranges of glass, 

 managed wholly by professional cultivators. It is precisely the same in respect to hardy 

 out-door fruits. A few dozens of trees, of different kinds and forms, in moderate-sized 

 country gardens, and a less number established in the smaller enclosures attached, to 

 suburban homes, are as greatly cherished as if they were ten times as numerous, just as 

 the members of small families are loved by their parents as much as those of large, and 

 irrespective of positions and circumstances in life. All that is requisite for rendering 

 fruit culture enjoyable is a full or fair measure of success, and this can be attained, under 

 ordinarily favourable conditions, by following the teaching of successful cultivators 

 clearly and plainly given. 



We pass to another most important and highly influential section of the community, 

 the owners or occupiers of estates, who undoubtedly ought to be acquainted with 

 the principles and chief details of fruit-growing, as intimately connected with the 

 improvement of their property where soils and localities are amenable to this 

 profitable cultivation. Instances will be given, as this work proceeds, of the greatly 

 enhanced value of land by its being placed under well-conducted methods of fruit 

 cropping, whereby landlords, tenants, and consumers of their produce have been 

 mutually benefited. 



Very true words were spoken by H.R.H. the Prince of Wales at a meeting of the 

 Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, when he said : " It is impossible for any 

 British gentleman to live at his country place without taking an interest in agriculture, 

 VOL. i. c 



