PREFACE. 



If any apology is necessary from me for having 

 written this book, it is due to the veteran Fruit 

 Growers of the Peninsula, who know much more 

 than I about all that pertains to the business. Yet 

 I feel that I am doing a work, that will, in many 

 wa>s, benefit them — a work that will cause dis- 

 cussion, and tend to bring uppermost in their 

 thoughts, matters which need constant agitation, in 

 order to sift the chaff from the grain, and to check 

 the inroads of ignorance and prejudice, which often 

 creep over minds at rest. 



For the novice I have no apology. For him I 

 have written just such a book as I feel and know 

 would have been of very great help and value to 

 me when I first engaged in fruit culture, and the 

 want of just such a guide, in my early struggles, has 

 cost me much pecuniary loss, and many bitter disap- 

 pointments. 



