INTRODUCTION. XV 



but few persons who have planted pear trees 

 in a large way who have not fallen into the 

 same class of mistakes, and who by so doing 

 have not had their pockets and patience sorely 

 tried. 



The science of growing trees that will pro- 

 duce choice fruit is very simple when once 

 understood. It is during the time spent in 

 wading in the dark, without any beacon to 

 guide tjieir steps, that the inexperienced suffer 

 from a series of disappointments. It is folly 

 to suppose that every person who plants an 

 orchard of pear trees succeeds. On the con- 

 trary, as far as my personal observation has 

 extended, there has been more money lost 

 than made, for I could enumerate five persons 

 who have utterly failed, to every one who has 

 made pear culture profitable. 



Think but an instant of the number of pear 

 trees that have been sold annually for the past 

 fifteen or twenty years, and then search for 

 the healthy, vigorous orchards that should by 

 this time be producing abundantly! Such 

 orchards are but few in comparison with those 

 of sickly, misshapen and unproductive trees 

 everywhere to be found. 



There are many obvious reasons for the nu- 



