VI PREFACE. 



more fully elaborated than might otherwise have been deemed 

 necessary, with the view of inducing our youth to give some 

 attention to them; by their own skill and labor multiplying 

 around the homes of their boyhood those pleasant associations 

 and enjoyments, the fragrant and ever-blooming memories of 

 which may yield them refreshment in the dusty road of after- 

 life. 



Additional interest might be given to such efforts by obtain- 

 ing the seeds, or scions, or grafts from scattered school or class- 

 mates. With the cheap mail facilities we now possess, there 

 seems to be no reason why there should not be, through this 

 channel, an extensive annual interchange of grafts of valuable 

 fruits, and flower and vegetable seeds, between the different 

 parts of our country. 



With the still farther hope that his book may find a famil- 

 iar place in many a farm home, the author has added brief 

 notes on farm crops, with the modes of estimating their value, 

 etc., and a table of their chemical analyses. 



In preparing the limited selections of the various fruits con- 

 tained in this volume, the author has been aided by the treat- 

 ises of Downing, Cole, Thomas, Elliott, and others. In the de- 

 scriptions given of particular insects he has o c ten availed him- 

 self of the reports of Dr. Asa Fitch, made to the Legislature of 

 New York, on the noxious and other insects of the state, and 

 the report on the insects of Massachusetts, made to the Legis- 

 lature of that state, by the late Dr. T. W. Harris ; while for 

 most of the illustrative drawings which form an important fea- 

 ture of the work he is indebted to his wife, and has pleasure 

 in acknowledging the obligation. His thanks are also due to 

 the engraver for the general truthfulness and excellence of the 

 illustrations, some of which presented peculiar difficulties in 

 their execution ; and to the publishers for the liberality and 

 taste with which the work is got up. 



