FOREWORDS. 



THE cultivation of hardy fruits in gardens, orchards, and 

 plantations is a fascinating, and, in favourable seasons, a 

 profitable pursuit. During the last century it engaged 

 the attention of many distinguished men, such as the late 

 Thomas Andrew Knight and Dr. Hogg among amateurs, 

 and Mr. Thomas Rivers and others among trade growers, 

 to whom we owe many of the most popular varieties of 

 fruit grown at the present day. To them also we owe 

 the introduction of the dwarfing stocks by means of which 

 apples and pears especially can be grown as cordons or 

 bushes in a more limited space than was possible in former 

 times. Hence we find dwarf fruit trees now being grown 

 extensively and profitably in small gardens, as well as in 

 large plantations, these coming into bearing at a much 

 earlier period of their life than the erstwhile standard- 

 trained trees of generations ago. 



There are few small gardens indeed in which it is not 

 possible to grow luscious and useful fruits successfully. 

 The Blackberry and the Loganberry, for example, may be 

 easily and profitably grown on fences, walls, or on arches ; 

 horizontally-trained cordon apples and pears may form a 

 pleasing fringe to the garden paths ; vertical and obliquely- 

 trained cordon plums, cherries, apples, pears, gooseberry, 

 and currant trees clothe an archway or pergola, or cover a 

 low wall or fence profitably; bush-trained apple's, pears, 

 plums, cherries, gooseberries, and currants grown around 

 the margins of paths or in small plots ; in each case, if 

 intelligently cared for, producing an annual crop of deli- 

 cious fruits. In far too many instances owners of small 

 gardens have failed to obtain satisfactory crops of fruit 



