MARKET NURSERY WORK 



VOL. V 



ORCHARD FRUIT TREE CULTURE 



CHAPTER I 

 INTRODUCTION 



To set about writing a book on fruit trees, however modest and 

 limited its scope, is, in these times, a task not lightly to be under- 

 taken. Fruit growing, as we understand it to-day, is a new industry, 

 even though its genesis goes right back to Adam. Our position is 

 somewhat anomalous, for long experience is, in some respects, a 

 handicap. This is the day of the young men, who, having been 

 born into the newer conditions, have nothing to unlearn. 



Prior to the last two decades of the nineteenth century, fruit 

 growing, as an organized industry, did not exist it was a mere 

 side line. In a few favourable localities the genius of the inhabitants 

 had taken it up and partly developed it, but there were only a few 

 pioneers who foresaw its possibilities, and fewer still were the voices 

 crying out of the wilderness, mostly to ears that were deaf. What 

 our climate, aided by the skill of man, was capable of was exempli- 

 fied by the excellent fruit being grown in large private gardens by 

 trained and skilful gardeners, and though no one would claim that 

 this was produced on anything approximating a commercial basis, 

 yet the fact that it was produced in abundance and of the highest 

 quality was perhaps the chief factor in directing to it the closer 

 attention of those most interested. 



At that time fruit growing was an art ; to-day it is a science, 

 upon which a vast, important and rapidly expanding Industry is 

 being built. Since science took hold of it, rattled its dry bones and 

 breathed vitality and intelligence into it, the whole aspect has 

 changed completely metamorphosed, and we are justified in our 



