X PREFACE . 



fully pra*ecl and living trees, whose fruit had been properly tested and 

 characterized, and of whose identification there was, finally, no question. 

 A book unincumbered with useless descriptions of worthless varieties, 

 and unneeded directions for planting and cultivation, and free from all 

 guess-work, and all unwrified statements, and confusing and half- 

 recognized synonyms. A descriptive and concise list, in fact, of such 

 actual fruits as are well established, and clearly identified, with their 

 most generally accepted names, and their most marked and unmistaka- 

 ble characteristics. 



And this was the plan designed and undertaken by the practical and 

 practiced author of the present work. Himself a fruit-grower of diver- 

 sified experience, and having been in correspondence for years with some 

 of the most prominent and successful cultivators in the United States, 

 especially with those whose experience has chiefiy related to the peculi- 

 arities and requisitions of the Middle and North-Western States, and 

 feeling, in his own practice, the want of such a ready guide, as the one 

 contemplated in his plan, he came to the work, prepared with his own 

 accumulated observations, the advice and suggestions of other competent 

 growers, and the advantage of the several larger, but differently 

 designed, works that had preceded his own. The errors of these last he 

 was to correct, and their faults he was to avoid. The task was by no 

 means an easy one, and would not have been undertaken, but for the 

 steady encouragement of many warm friends of pomological science, and 

 the aid of many efficient cultivators; in whose knowledge and candor he 

 had steady reason to confide, and for wEose kindness he desires, here to 

 acknowledge his repeated indebtedness. 



That the work is faultless, is not claimed. That it will be found con- 

 venient, thorough and accurate, and just adapted to daily field use by 

 the Western grower of both large and small fruits, whether professional 

 or amateur, is fully believed by the accomplished author's friend and 

 associate, 



J. W. W. 



Cincinnati, February 15, 1857. 



