PREFACE 
TO THE 
AMERICAN EDITION. 
Tue small but very comprehensive work here presented 
to the American public, is the production of one who for 
more than thirty years was secretary of the “ Caledonian 
Horticultural Society,” and who enjoyed every facility for 
acquiring the very best information relating to the subjects 
upon which he treats. That it has been favorably received 
in England and Scotland, would seem very clear from the 
fact of its having gone to a fourth edition in a very short 
time. The treatise presents, in a condensed form, a sum- 
mary view of the condition of horticultural knowledge in 
Britain, and especially in Scotland, from whence we derive 
the most intelligent and successful gardeners. The superior 
skill of these in the management of plants and ‘the culture 
of many rare kinds of fruit, is doubtless owing in a great 
degree to the extraordinary exertions they have been 
accustomed to put forth to secure success in a climate far 
less genial to fruits and flowers than that of most parts of 
the United States. In endeavoring to adapt this valuable 
manual to the condition of things in the United States, it 
has been thought best to retain all the original matter, 
however apparently irrelevant, since most intelligent per- 
fl 
