INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION. IX 



Horticultural Society was actively engaged in its labors. 

 The London Horticultural Society had made great ad- 

 vancement in its examination and trial of fruits, and had 

 corrected a multitude of long standing errors in nomen- 

 clature. 



Mr. Downing's work had the benefit of all this ; and 

 possessing the instructive feature of outline figures of 

 fruits, and being written in a very agreeable and attrac- 

 tive style, it possessed the elements of popularity and 

 usefulness in an eminent degree. Hence it became at 

 once the text-book of every man who sought for porno- 

 logical information, or felt interested in fruits or fruit- 

 trees ; and to it is justly attributable much of the taste 

 and spirit on the subject,, and the increased attention to 

 nomenclature, that so distinguishes the present time. Mr. 

 Thomas's recent treatise, " The American Fruit Culturist," 

 on the same plan as Mr. Downing's, is also a popular 

 work, and will be the means of diffusing both taste and 

 information. Mr. Thomas is a close and accurate ob- 

 server, and his descriptions are peculiarly concise, methodi- 

 cal, and minute. "Cole's Fruit Book" is also a recent 

 treatise, and on account of its cheapness, and the vast ac- 

 cumulation of facts and information it contains, is highly 

 popular and useful. Besides these, periodicals, devoted 

 more or less to the subject, have increased in number, and 

 greatly extended their circulation, so that information is 

 now accessible to all who desire it. 



The light which has been shed upon fruit-growing by 

 these works, and the taste they have created, have not 

 only improved old systems of cultivation, but introduced 

 new ones. Until within a few years, nothing was said or 

 known among the great body of cultivators, or even nur- 

 serymen, of dwarfing trees, of the uses of certain stocks, 

 or of modes of propagation and pruning by which trees 

 are made to bear early, and are adapted to different cir- 

 cumstances. The entire routine of the propagation and 

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