FOREWORDS. 



through planting such unsuitably trained trees as espaliers 

 against low walls or fences, or standards where the space 

 available for the natural extension of roots and branches 

 has been too circumscribed. Severe pruning has conse- 

 quently had to be resorted to, with the inevitable result, 

 rank growth and no fruit. Had such low walls or fences 

 been planted with cordons, or the open garden with bush- 

 trained trees, the result would have proved .more suc- 

 cessful. 



The cultivation of ihardy fruits is likely to be carried 

 on in a more extensive manner in the near future. It 

 has been realised, as the .result of the late European 

 War, that iwe must cultivate food crops more largely 

 than ever, so as to endeavour to make this sea-girt island 

 more independent of imported food supplies in the future 

 than in the past ; and next to vegetables, hardy fruits, such 

 as the apple, plum, etc., form an important and essential 

 part of our daily dietary. 



Thousands of men who are in process of being de- 

 mobilised from the Army and Navy are apparently keen 

 upon settling down on the land, and hence, we shall see 

 in due course a great extension of small holdings, and 

 the more general cultivation of fruit and vegetables 

 throughout the kingdom. May it be so. Such men will 

 need guidance and counsel in the carrying out of so laud- 

 able and patriotic an enterprise, if they desire to obtain the 

 most successful results, and we think we can modestly 

 say that they could not obtain the information needed 

 from a better, more reliable, or more practical source than 

 t/he pages of this volume. 



The old axiom saith : "Good wine needs no bush." 

 Thus we need do no more than state that the present 

 edition, which has been carefully brought up to date, will 

 speak for itself. In its pages the fruit grower will find 

 sound, practical guidance on the cultivation of hardy 

 fruits in all its various phases. 



1919. T. W. S. 



