6 DESULTORY REMARKS. 



both of these and of trees from the best foreign and native sources. We" 

 shall subject their produce to the same rigid scrutiny with the contents 

 of the present volume ; and shall offer those which prove most valuable 

 and hardy to nursery-men and amateurs, who will thus be enabled to 

 obtain varieties of tried merit, without danger of the necessity of a re- 

 r.ewal, at a future period, after waiting many years for the appearance 

 of fruit. 



A supplement to this work will be published at the close of every 

 fruit season, describing each desirable kind which has been proved dur- 

 ing the season. With the exception of Peaches, we recommend no 

 fruit that will not ripen in any part of New England or New York, and 

 in the southern part of Canada. Our selections have been made from 

 nearly four hundred kinds, which we have raised yearly. Experience 

 has taught us that many fruits, highly extolled by European writers, and 

 doubtless of great excellence in their native soil, either perish or degen- 

 erate in our colder regions ; and of these and all others which we have 

 found in any respect improper for cultivation, we design hereafter to 

 publish a catalogue. 



We do not claim for all the varieties herein enumerated, the distinc- 

 tion of first rate fruits ; some are second rale, admitted in consideration 

 of their size, beauty and abundant bearing, though their flavour is not 

 the most delicious. The essential characteristics of a first rate tree are, 

 health, vigor, and fertility ; those of a first rate fruit are, magnitude of 

 size, beauty of shape and colour, and richness of flavour. But a small 

 number of fruits, uniting all these qualities, is known to horticultural 

 science throughout the world. Besides, in regard to the taste of a fruit, 

 the judgment of individuals greatly varies j what one person would pro- 

 nounce exquisite, might to another seem merely tolerable. In commen- 

 dation, however, of the kinds described in this manual, we confidently 

 declare our conviction, that no possessor of any or all of them would 

 willingly relinquish their culture for the purpose of regrafling his trees 

 with any other varieties. 



There is one circumstance to which we venture to call (he attention of 

 our readers that tvhile some recent works on Pomology are compiled 

 from earlier authors, or from information derived at second-hand, the 

 writers themselves seldom having the means of observation in their 

 power, we have in these pages described no specimen which we have 

 not actually identified, beyond a reasonable doubt of its genuineness.' 



