PREFACE 



The spirit said " Write ! " And I wrote. The re- 

 sult is before the reader. If it shall be of any service 

 to liini — well ; if not — well. 



But there is hope that this little book — imperfect 

 and faulty as a just criticism may find it to l)e — will 

 be of some service to the fruit-eating and fruit-produc- 

 ing public. If it shall in any wise aid those who don't 

 now know how to choose, to plant, to cultivate, and to 

 use the fniits of the earth, which the beneficent Cre- 

 ator has so bounteously bestowed upon us, it will have 

 fulfilled the mission designed for it by 



THE AUTHOR. 



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