PEEFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 



It ia the first step in science to know what is known. What is new, 

 and dependent on experience and original observation, will then come 

 easier and more certainly. It is an economy of time and labor, in any 

 inrestigator, to ascertain well what has been done before him, in any 

 field of experiment. Much time is often irrecoverably wasted in blun- 

 dering oyer proposed experiments, and supposed novelties, that have 

 long before been thoroughly examined, and definitely settled. - In no 

 branch of practical science are these maxims more true than in regard 

 to the cultivation of fruit ; and this because there are so many claims 

 upon the cultivator's attention ; so many drafts upon his credulous inex- 

 perience ; so many contradictory statements resulting from superficial 

 investigations ; so many delusory appearances ; so much pretension and 

 self-serving ; so much that rests upon inadequate and interested evidence. 

 There is, in a word, so much to confuse, mislead, and deceive, that he 

 who shall present to the fruit-grower, a key to these conflicting claims 

 and representations, giving, in words of truth and soberness, a, just and 

 concise statement of what may be relied on as fact, in regard to the 

 value and names of such fruits as are really and honestly known to be 

 worthy of acceptation and confidence, — ^that man will have done a good 

 work, and should be welcomed of all men as a benefactor, in a field 

 where ignorance is attended with innumerable mischievous consequen- 

 ces, and where doubt is about as fatal as ignorance. 



There have been several praiseworthy laborers in this inviting field, 

 and all with more or less fault and excellence, more or less accuracy and 

 error — the result, perhaps, of too much haste in compilation, and too 

 great confidence in mistaken and interested testimony. None have 

 seemed exactly to fill the purpose desired ; and the want of a new and 

 more competent work, in the shape of a concise and reliable hand-book, 

 was very generally experienced, and widely and repeatedly expressed. 

 A work was needed, less voluminous, and less diffusive, based upon the 

 authentic experience of actual cultivators; upon well-purged lists of 



[ix.] 



