IV _ INTRODUCTION. 



the valued products of his own garden, and of his own skill and 

 labor. Fortunately, in the United States, land is so easily ob- 

 tained as to be within the reach of every industrious man ; and 

 the climate and soil being so favorable to the production of fruit, 

 Americans, if they be not already, must become truly " a nation 

 of fruit growers." 



Fruit culture, therefore, whether considered as a branch of 

 profitable industry, or as exercising a most beneficial influence 

 upon the health, habits, and tastes of the people, becomes a great 

 national interest, and whatever may assist in making it better un- 

 derstood, and more interesting, and better adapted to the various 

 wants, tastes, and circumstances of the community, cannot fail to 

 subserve the public good. 



Within a few years past it has received an unusual degree of 

 attention. Plantations of all sorts, orchards, gardens, and nur- 

 series, have increased in numbers and extent to a degree quite un- 

 precedented ; not in one section or locality, but from the extreme 

 north to the southern limits of the fruit-growing region. Foreign 

 supplies of trees have been required to meet the suddenly and 

 greatly increased demand. Treatises and periodicals devoted to the 

 subject have increased rapidly and circulated widely. Horticul- 

 tural societies have been organized in all parts ; while exhibitions, 

 and national, state, and local conventions of fruit growers, have 

 been held to discuss the merits of fruits and other kindred topics. 



To those unacquainted with the previous condition of fruit cul- 

 ture in the interior of the country, this new planting spirit has 

 appeared as a sort of speculative mania, and the idea has sug- 

 gested itself to them that the country will soon be overstocked 

 with fruits. This is a greatly mistaken apprehension. After all 

 that has been done, let us look at the actual condition of fruit 

 culture at the present time. In the best fruit-growing counties 



