PREFACE. 21 



chapter on the cultivation of the Quince, and some 

 of the nut-bearing trees. I hope the advice it gives 

 may be found useful in other parts, but all its 

 methods are particularly adapted to the Peninsula ; 

 and for the benefit and instruction of the good peo- 

 ple residing thereon, I have written it. Its prepara- 

 tion has cost me much work, and entirely absorbed 

 as is my time, by the perplexing and harassing duties 

 of an arduous and laborious profession, the oppor- 

 tunities for its unfolding have been snatched, as it 

 were, from hours which should have been devoted 

 to needed rest and recreation. 



Nevertheless, some such Guide was needed ; 

 and the labor of getting it out has been in the nature 

 of a pleasure as well as of a duty to me ; and now, 

 with the earnest hope that it may prove of some 

 substantial benefit to the people of my native State, 

 and of the whole Eastern Shores, and profoundly 

 impressed as I am with its many shortcomings, I 

 launch it forth, and I pray God that it may, in fact, 

 bring forth good fruit, and be met by only balmy 

 breezes on the gende waves of a summer sea. 



JOHN J. BLACK. 

 New Castle, Del., January i, 1886. 



