VI INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION. 



United States, land is so easily obtained as to be within 

 the reach of every industrious man ; and the climate and 

 soil being so favorable to the production of fruit, Ameri- 

 cans, if they be not already, must become truly " a nation 

 of fruit growers." 



Fruit culture, therefore, whether considered as a branch 

 of profitable industry, or as exercising a most beneficial 

 influence upon the health, habits, and tastes of the people, 

 becomes a great national interest, and whatever may as- 

 sist in making it better understood, and more interesting, 

 and better adapted to the various wants, tastes, and cir- 

 cumstances of the community, cannot fail to subserve the 

 public good. 



Within a few years past it has received an unusual de- 

 gree of attention. Plantations of all sorts, orchards, 

 gardens, and nurseries, have increased in numbers and 

 extent to a degree quite unprecedented ; not in one section 

 or locality, but from the extreme north to the southern 

 limits of the fruit-growing region. Foreign supplies of 

 trees have been required to meet the suddenly and greatly 

 increased demand. Treatises and periodicals devoted to 

 the subject have increased rapidly and circulated widely. 

 Horticultural societies have been organized in all parts ; 

 while exhibitions, and national, State, and local conven- 

 tions of fruit growers, have been held to discuss the 

 merits of fruits and other kindred topics. 



To those unacquainted with the previous condition of 

 fruit culture in the inferior of the country, this new, plant- 

 ing spirit has appeared as a sort of speculative mania ; and 

 the idea has suggested itself to them that the country will 

 soon be overstocked with fruits. This is a greatly mis- 

 taken apprehension. After all that has been done, let us 

 look at the actual condition of fruit culture at the present 

 time. In the best fruit-growing counties in the State of 

 New York, the entire fruit plantations, of more than three- 

 fourths of the agricultural population, consist of very 



