Vlll INTRODUCTION. 



the foregoing observations, and sincerely regretting that 

 there should be no present expectation of such a task 

 being undertaken by any one fully competent to it, the 

 Editor of this work ventures to throw himself upon the 

 indulgence of the public in attempting, not to carry into 

 effect such a plan himself, but to sketch out, in regard 

 to the Fruit Garden, what he thinks the method should 

 be upon which a more competent person would do well 

 to proceed. 



All our fruits, without exception, have been so much 

 ameliorated by one circumstance or another, that they 

 no longer bear any resemblance in respect of quality to 

 their original. Who, for instance, would recognise the 

 wild parent of the Coe's or Green Gage Plum in the 

 savage Sloe, or that of the Ribston and Golden Pippin 

 Apples in the worthless acid Crab ? Or what re- 

 semblance can now be traced between the delicious 

 Beurre Pears, whose flesh is so succulent, rich, and melt- 

 ing, and that hard, stony, astringent fruit, which even 

 birds and animals refuse to eat? Yet these are undoubted 

 cases of improvement resulting from time and skill 

 patiently and constantly in action. The constant drop- 

 ping of water will not more surely wear away the hardest 

 stone, than will the reason of man in time compel all 

 nature to become subservient to his wants or wishes. 

 But it would be of little service to mankind that the 

 quality of any fruit should be improved, unless we 

 found some efficient and certain mode of multiplying 

 the individuals when obtained. Hence there are two 

 great considerations to which it is, above all things, ne- 

 cessary that the attention of the cultivator should be 

 directed, viz. AMELIORATION and PROPAGATION. 



Amelioration consists either in acquiring new and 

 improved varieties of fruit, or in increasing their good 

 qualities when acquired. It will be as well to consider 

 these two subjects separately. 



