IV DEDICATION. 



chards, in proportion to their population, than are now to be 

 found in the old colony ; and it is no less notorious that the chil- 

 dren have substituted a poisonous liquor for the salutary bever- 

 age, which almost exclusively cheered the hearts of their virtu- 

 ous ancestors. The views of men are often materially affected 

 through mere indolence of temper, no less than through the 

 cloud of prejudice. Averse to the labour of reading and inquiry, 

 they adhere pertinaciously to the routine of their predecessors, 

 and treat with equal contempt the lessons of experience, and all 

 suggestions of improvement. It is not, however, desirable that 

 former modes of practice in husbandry should be abandoned un- 

 til it shall be incontestably proved, that a system more adapted 

 to our circumstances, and in all respects of superiour utility, can 

 be founded on the surest basis. It is not to be required of our 

 farmers to subject themselves to. the expense and uncertainty 

 of novel experiments ; but he who possesses capital and leisure, 

 and who, in the spirit of investigation, shall put in execution a 

 hundred new projects, although in ten only shall he be successful 

 in the acquisition of useful knowledge, will be entitled to public 

 praise and respect. These pages contain no speculative or vis- 

 ionary projects, nor recommend any untried experiments. Al- 

 though a portion of information is derived from European au- 

 thors, no inconsiderable part of it has been collected from the 

 practical experiments and observations of our own countrymen. 

 Therre is, therefore, no part of this production but what may be 

 adopted as applicable to our climate, and calculated to promote 

 the interests of the cultivators of our soil. The knowledge re- 

 sprcting the proper management of fruit trees is contained in 

 numerous volumes, and in incidental papers, published in peri- 

 odical works. My object has been to collate and embrace all 

 the principal circumstances relative to the subject, and con- 

 dense 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 valuable periodical publications of your so- 

 ciety, and various other similar productions. If, in a few in- 

 stances, it shall appear that I have employed borrowed language 

 without marks of quotation, my apology is, that I have copied 

 from minutes collected at various times, without reference to 

 the source whence derived ; not that 1 would wittingly pilfer 

 the cultivated fruit of others, and impose it upon my guesfs as 

 the result of my own industry. 



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



