PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. 



In presenting to the public a third edition of his " Fruit 

 Book," the author desires to offer a few remarks, in expla- 

 nation of the errors that occurred in the first. That the 

 demand for this work should have required a third edi- 

 tion within one year, is, perhaps, not so much owing to 

 its intrinsic merits, as to the increasing taste in the people 

 of the Western Country, for the cultivation of fruits, and 

 the study of pomology. It is very gratifying to find, 

 however, that the book has met with so large a sale, even 

 with all its imperfections. 



The original intention was to publish, simply, a descrip- 

 tive Catalogue of Fruits, after the manner of the Catalogue 

 of the London Horticultural Society, in a cheap and con- 

 densed form ; and with this view, portions of the manu- 

 script were submitted to the inspection of some of his 

 Horticultural friends, to elicit their opinion of the value 

 of such a publication to the interests of Western pomology. 



This explanation is due to the reputation of those 

 gentlemen, as pomologists, who so kindly recommended 

 the Catalogue to the public, as they might have hesitated 

 to indorse it in the more extended form, and ambitious 

 title, which it afterward assumed, without a thorough and 

 critical examination of the whole manuscript, as it was 

 furnished to the publishers. It was at their suggestion 

 that the work finally appeared as a " Fruit Boole" instead 

 of a " Catalogue" as being more likely to meet the public 

 wants. 



[vii.J 



