PREFACE 



This book was first published in 1897, seventeen years 

 ago. The second edition was called for in 1898, and the 

 preface for it was written in the Tyrol, where I was then 

 looking into the interesting fruit-growing of certain 

 regions. Aside from minor changes in the text, this edition 

 included an addition to the appendix of "remarks on 

 classifying and describing fruits." The third edition ap- 

 peared in 1900, with no change except in details; and the 

 fourth in 1901. The present issue of the book, which is the 

 twentieth, is a new work, it having been rearranged and 

 reset, and largely rewritten. 



In the years since the book first appeared, much new 

 knowledge has come to the aid of the fruit-grower. The 

 advanced opinions of that day on the merits of tillage 

 over hay and sod have now been affirmed by experience 

 and experiments, although the sod-mulch method has 

 proved itself under certain circumstances. The many 

 investigations of insects and fungi, and the means of 

 attacking them, have resulted in a new literature and 

 more certain means of control. We are beginning a new 

 line of approach to the difficult problem of protection 

 from frost. We have more rational recommendations 

 to make on the fertilizing of fruit-lands. We are begin- 

 ning in many ways to adapt practices of caring for the 



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