INTRODUCTION. 



The design of this book is to furnish, the Canadian ccdtivator 

 ■with a reliahle guide in all matters relating to the cultivation of 

 fruit, flowers and vegetables in our climate. It is the result of 

 many years of experience and careful nbservation, in which the 

 fruits that can be most generally grown in Canada have been the 

 subject of special study. Many hundreds of varieties of the 

 several kinds of fruits have been actually grown by the writer, 

 and their value for cultivation in our climate thoroughly studied 

 and tested. To this has been added the valuable information 

 derived from a wide-spread correspondence with horticrdturists 

 in different parts of the Provinces, thus putting the writer in 

 possession of the experience of others, in the several departments 

 of horticulture, throughout the Dominion. Hitherto there has 

 been no work devoted to these subjects which has been written 

 by a Canadian, embodying his own actual experience and obser- 

 vation in these matters, and which Canadians could rely upon 

 as adapted to their own peculiar necessities, and consult in all 

 these interests of the fruit, flower and vegetable garden, with 

 confidence, as embodying the experience of a practical man in 

 these departments, who knows their peculiar position and wants 

 from personal participation in their diffictdties. In the hope of 

 meeting these wants, and of helping some of my countrymen in 

 their horticultural labors, these pages have been written, and are 

 now offered to all who love good fruit, pretty flowers, and choice 



