PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION 



In this country fruit culture has only of late years received the 

 recognition its importance deserves. Its value has been brought 

 home to us by the enormous importations of fruit from the Con- 

 tinent, our Colonies, and America, which fail altogether to meet 

 the increasing demand. That we should have to depend so largely 

 upon supplies from abroad, when our own country can produce 

 fruit of such excellence, is a serious reflection upon the intelligence 

 and enterprise of British fruit-growers. Landowners and cultivators 

 in Britain are thereby deprived of their share of the wealth sent 

 abroad for articles which can be grown quite as well at home, and 

 for which the best markets are ready at our doors. 



There are signs throughout the kingdom that we are slowly 

 waking up, both to the importance of the subject and the possibilities 

 of its development. This is manifest in several ways : for instance, 

 fruit culture is now an optional subject in numerous schools ; 

 hundreds of acres of fruit trees are planted annually, either in estab- 

 lishing new or in renovating old orchards, and anxious inquiries 

 are continually received by the horticultural Press for information 

 on this important matter. Impressed by these considerations, it was 

 thought by the authors and other experts that a comprehensive and 

 up-to-date worJc, dealing with the question in a thoroughly practical 

 manner, would, at the present time, render valuable aid in bringing 

 this movement to a successful issue. It is in the hope that their 

 life-long and practical experience in the various phases of fruit culture 

 may prove useful, that the authors place their services at the disposal 

 of the public. No efforts have been spared to make " The Fruit 

 Garden " a trustworthy guide to the production of fruit, both to 

 the professional gardener who devotes his life to the work, and to 



