6 HOME FRUIT GROWER 



Michigan, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, 

 Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, in all of 

 which sections I have either resided or spent much time with fruit 

 growers. Since my travels in sub-tropical regions have been limited 

 I have been obliged to draw on the experience and opinions of other 

 fruit growers for judgments and descriptions of such fruits and fruit 

 varieties. 



Doubtless the majority of my readers, having small areas at their 

 disposal, need suggestions as to the maximum utilization of available 

 space. They should, therefore, be pleased with the chapters on 

 Laying Out the Plantation, upon Combining Beauty with Comfort 

 and Utility, and upon Dwarf Fruits, also with the ample directions 

 for growing the various Bush Fruits. 



I can scarcely urge too strongly that each reader plant at least 

 some of the unusual fruits and fruit-bearing ornamentals, for the 

 novelty and variety of the thing. In this connection special attention 

 may be directed, to the few paragraphs on origination of new varieties 

 (see Contents), because at least some of these fruits should prove 

 highly interesting as subjects with which to experiment. Plant 

 breeding, however, is in itself a subject for a far larger volume than 

 this one and can only be mentioned as the most interesting and absorb- 

 ing field of all horticultural effort. 



As the American Pomological Society is several times referred 

 to in the text, a few words concerning it may well be said. This 

 association was established in 1848 by broad-minded amateur fruit 

 growers whose aim, according to the Society's constitution, is "the 

 advancement of the science of pomology." In this work the Society 

 has won an enviable standing in the world, because, to quote from 

 the last address of Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, (for nearly forty years 

 its president), "it has raised the standard of excellence by which our 

 fruits are judged, discouraged the cultivation of inferior sorts educated 

 the taste of the public for those of better quality established a 

 uniform system of rules by which fruits are to be shown and judged 

 instituted a much needed reform in the nomenclature of fruits 

 published biennially its Catalogue of Fruits but most important of all 

 [its constant aim has been] to give American Pomology a high character 



