INTBODVCTION TO THE FIRST EDITION 

 By Thomas Rivers 



My attention was drawn to the benefits fruit trees derive 

 from root-pruning and frequent removal about the year 

 1810. I was then a youth, with a most active fruit-appe- 

 tite, and if a tree bearing superior fruit could be discovered 

 in my father's orchard I was very constant in my visits 

 to it. 



In those days there was in the old nursery, first cropped 

 with trees by my grandfather about the middle of last 

 century, a 'quarter' — i.e., a piece of ground devoted to the 

 reception of refuse trees — of such trees as were too small 

 or weak for customers ; so that in taking up trees for 

 orders during the winter they were left, and, in spring, all 

 taken up and transplanted to the ' hospital quarter,' as the 

 labourers called it. The trees in this quarter were taken 

 up, often annually, and planted nearer together, on the 

 same piece of ground. This old nursery consisted of about 

 eight acres, the soil of a deep reddish loam, inclining to 

 clay, in which fruit trees flourished and grew vigorously. 

 I soon found that it w^ but of little use to look among 

 the young free-growing trees for fruit, but among the re- 

 fuse trees, and to the 'hospital quarter' I was indebted 

 for many a fruit-feast — such Ribston Pippins ! such Golden 

 Pippins ! 



