INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION. VII 



ordinary orchards of apples. Not a dish of fine pears, 

 plums, cherries, apricots, grapes, nor raspberries, has ever 

 appeared on their tables, and not a step has yet been taken 

 to produce them. People are but beginning to learn the 

 uses of fruits, and to appreciate their importance. 



At one time apples were grown chiefly for cider ; now 

 they are considered an indispensable article of food. The 

 finer fruits, that were formerly considered as luxuries only 

 for the tables of the wealthy, are beginning to take their 

 place among the ordinary supplies of every man's table ; 

 and this taste must grow from year to year, with an in- 

 creased supply.* Those who consume a bushel of fruit 

 this year, will require double or treble that quantity 

 next. The rapid increase of population alone, creates a 

 demand to an extent that few people are aware of. The 

 city of Rochester has added 20,000 to her numbers in 

 ten years. Let such an increase as this in all our cities, 

 towns, and villages, be estimated, and see what an aggre- 

 gate, annual amount of new consumers it presents. 



New markets are continually presenting themselves, and 

 demanding large supplies. New and more perfect modes 

 of packing and shipping fruits, and of drying, preserving, 

 and preparing them for various purposes to which they 

 have not hitherto been appropriated, are beginning to en- 

 list attention and inquiry. 



Immense amounts of money are annually expended in 

 importing grapes, wines, figs, nuts, prunes, raisins, cur- 

 rants, almonds, etc., many of which might be produced 

 perfectly well on our own soil. Pears have actually been 

 imported from France by the New York confectioners, 

 this present season (1851). These are facts that should 

 be well understood by proprietors of lands, and especially 

 by those who have allowed themselves to imagine that 

 fruit will soon be so plenty as not to be worth the grow- 

 ing. 



It is too soon, by a century, to apprehend an over sup- 



