PREFACE BY THE EDITOR 



In a proposed series of monographs on the 

 various types of American fruits, this book is the 

 first. Its purpose is to present both the practical 

 and technical phases of all the important questions 

 concerned in the cultivation and domestication of 

 the fruits under discussion. It has been the effort 

 to separate these two classes of matter, so that the 

 grower may go direct to his subject without being 

 distracted by details of history, botany or ento- 

 mology ; and the student and investigator may be 

 equally at ease in rapid reference to the subjects 

 in which he is primarily interested. A historical 

 sketch is of the greatest value as information and 

 in giving the reader a perspective of the subject, 

 but it is of no direct importance to the cultiva- 

 tion of a crop, and, therefore, should not form an 

 introduction to the practical matter, nor be incor- 

 porated with it, notwithstanding the fact that such 

 amalgamation is the custom. The practical matters 

 in this book aim to begin where the cultivator 

 must begin, — with the land and the plant. 



In this, as in other volumes of the. series of 

 (v) 



