PREFACE. 



At the suggestion of the Under Secretary for Agri- 

 culture this pamphlet upon Orchard practice has beeu 

 prepared, as a precursor to a work of closer local applica- 

 tion for which the data do not yet exist. Time only can 

 show how far it meets a present want. Throughout an 

 effort has been made to avoid empirical rules without 

 reasons, to state in the simplest manner such laws of 

 vegetative life as particularly concern the fruit-grower, 

 and from them to deduce as necessary consequences the 

 correct rules of practice. It is not possible to produce a 

 manual of universal application in a country like the Cape 

 which has two distinct and conversely differing climates 

 of west and east, and where the variations are further ac- 

 centuated by the rapid increase of altitude as one passes 

 inland. The writers hope that by the observations and 

 data furnished by intelligent cultivators in these very 

 divergent intercolonial climates, it may be possible here- 

 after to define with more accuracy the climatic areas and 

 approximate altitudes which demand variations in garden- 

 ing practice no less than in the objects of culture. The 

 pamphlet will have fulfilled its purpose if it enforces 

 attention to the points most neglected in fruit-culture. 

 These are the incredible neglect of the mechanical con- 

 dition of the soil and general avoidance of deep trenching, 

 the unintelligent use of irrigation, the absence of any 

 effective system of sub-drainage, unscientific pruning both 

 formative and in maintenance, and an easy satisfaction 

 with seedlings that have thrown back, instead of growing 

 only pedigree sorts propagated by bud and graft. Reform 

 of cultural custom and practice on these five points lies at 

 the foundation of all improvement in Cape fruit growing. 



P. MACOWAN, F.L.S., F.R.H.S., &c. 

 EUSTACE PILLANS, Agricultural Assistant. 



