DEDICATION. V 



tion of information is derived from European authors, no inconsi- 

 derable part of it has been collected from the practical experi- 

 ments and observations of our own countrymen. There is, there- 

 fore, no part of this production but what may be adopted as'ap- 

 plicable to our climate, and calculated to promote the interests 

 of the cultivators of our soil. The knowledge respecting the 

 proper management of fruit trees is contained in numerous vo- 

 lumes, and in incidental papers, published in periodical works. 

 My object has been to collate and embrace all the principal cir- 

 cumstances relative to the subject, and condense the whole into 

 a small compass, that shall be accessible both to the pecuniary 

 means of all, and to the intellectual powers of the most ordinary 

 capacity. The authorities to which I am chiefly indebted, ,are 

 the several encyclopedias, Forsyth on Fruit Trees, and the valua- 

 ble periodical publications of your society, and various other si- 

 milar productions. If, in a few instances, it shall appear that f 

 have employed borrowed language without marks of quotation, 

 my apology is, that I have copied from minutes collected at va- 

 rious times, without reference to the source whence derived; not 

 that I would wittingly pilfer the cultivated fruit of others, and 

 impose it upon my guests as the result of my own industry. 



Nothing can be more irksome to a reflecting mind than a state 

 of inactivity and idleness. I have devoted some of my leisure hours 

 to the subject of this treatise, and have derived from the employ- 

 ment both recreation and improvement. Should the book share 

 the fate of many others, and pass into neglect and oblivion, it 

 will not be a cause of chagrin ; but if it should be so fortunate as 

 to rise into popularity, and arrest the attention of our farmers, 

 who may be assured that a little " book-knowledge'' will do 

 them no barm, it will be a source of the highest gratification. 



