IV ADVERTISEMENT 



practical agriculturist, nor the member 

 of any learned society : and as it is the 

 fashion of the times to attach great import- 

 ance to such authority, some may consider 

 me arrogant, presumptuous, and invidious, 

 in attempting to intrude on the public my 

 commentaries on the works of such estab- 

 lished characters : but I disclaim any other 

 intention, than that of ascertaining and 

 establishing just principles, and I cannot 

 hope to induce any one to adopt my notions 

 in preference to others, unless I prove 

 theirs to be wrong. My ideas on the sci- 

 ence of horticulture have long been before 

 the public ; and the critics remarked on that 

 work, that I was more bold than politic : 

 but what sort of policy must it be to deter 

 an Englishman from appearing as the ad- 

 vocate of truth and science ? If they mean 

 that by my boldness in endeavouring to 

 point out what I conceived to be the errors 

 of others, and to rectify that which I had 

 proved to be bad in practice, I lost the 

 patronage of the Horticultural Society of 

 London, they may be correct j for this, as a 



