20 PREFACE. 



In gathering material for the book, I have not 

 hesitated to avail myself of the work of others, and 

 when used directly, have always endeavored to give 

 proper credit My own opinions and judgments, 

 where expressed, have been formed from close 

 observation, from experiment, from personal ex- 

 perience, and from the knowledge gained in my 

 intercourse with the intelligent growers of fruit 

 wherever I have met them. All my ideas have 

 been developed after due consideration, and I am 

 prepared to maintain them until convinced that 

 they are erroneous ; then they shall be withdrawn or 

 modified to suit a wider-gained experience. Any 

 statistics I present are founded more or less on con- 

 jecture, and it will only be necessary to go into such 

 work as I have been doing to see how utterly bereft 

 the business of fruit culture is, of any fostering 

 care of government, State or National. 



The reader will please note that the work is not 

 one adapted to all parts of the country, nor is it in 

 every way a complete Manual of Horticulture ; but 

 it is intended to be just what its title declares — A 

 Manual for the Cultivation of the Peach and the Pear 

 on the Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula, with a 



