INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



It is now upwards of forty years since I was put to 

 the pruning and training of the Peach, and other fruit- 

 trees, and more than thirty-six years since I was 

 called upon by a gentleman to renovate a set of wall 

 trees which had gone into a state of dilapidation. Said 

 he, " Do you think you can make anything of them ? ' 

 I replied that I could do so, and may say, without 

 boasting, that I did do so, to his astonishment. 



The inducements I have had to write this work have 

 been various. I know that there have been many who 

 have given directions how to prune the Peach, &c, but 

 their works are either too deficient in illustrative ex- 

 amples, or so elaborate as to be beyond the reach of 

 most of the young men who are trying to learn this 

 essential branch of good gardening. Few among our 

 young men can now afford to give so much as thirty, 

 twenty, or even fifteen shillings for such a book. 



One great reason I had for writing this book was the 

 miserable and defective method of pruning generally 

 adopted nowadays. I see this almost everywhere I 

 go, and deplore it. I have a garden now under my care, 

 with a splendid brick wall 400 feet long planted with 

 Peaches, which has been managed by several profes- 

 sional gardeners, not one of whom, however, knew how to 

 prune a Peach. I see from the trees on this long wall 

 that men may know how to plant and grow a tree, but 

 that there are comparatively few who can prune well, or 

 perhaps even at all. 



Another object I had in view was to furnish such of 



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