IV PREFACE. 



praise, sometimes of ridicule, just as it may suit 

 the passage or parts alluded to ; but by caution- 

 ing my readers against inexperienced authors, I 

 do not intend throughout this publication to call 

 any one name in particular in question, as, 

 perhaps, much which has been written has been 

 to the best of the writer's judgment. But when 

 a person is about to become a fruit grower, 

 (particularly on an extensive scale,) he ought to 

 be cautious how he follows the advice of inex- 

 perienced or theoretical persons ; for I have read 

 many works professing to treat on horticultural 

 and gardening subjects, which are more cal- 

 culated to amuse than enlighten. There is a 

 difference between rules of treatment by which 

 certain effects can be insured, and hereditary 

 customs, (if I may use the term) by which 

 advantages may accidentally follow ; yet the 

 sticklers, nay almost worshippers, of these latter, 

 will not hesitate to attack the experienced man, 

 because, in one instance out of a hundred, he 



