PREFACE 



TO THE SIXTH EDITION. 



TN preparing another edition of this book, I have 

 again to record remarkable progress in the Fruit 

 industry throughout Britain. Old ideas are giving 

 way rapidly to modern systems, and although the 

 main points of my first edition in 1881 are still 

 reliable, we have recently learnt so much that is 

 valuable and of practical importance, that the present 

 edition is entirely revised, so as to bring it up to 

 date in every particular. 



The new facts brought out by the interesting 

 Conference held by the Royal Horticultural Society, 

 and the important conclusions arrived at by the 

 Parliamentary Enquiry or Commission, instituted by 

 Lord Onslow, before which I had the honour of being 

 summoned, are herein enumerated. 



The published Journals relating to these meetings 

 are well worth study by all interested in fruit culture. 

 (For notes see Chapter XXVI.) 



The steady demand for this little brochure continues, 

 and, the last edition being exhausted, I have en- 

 deavoured to bring together the latest information 

 available in the present work, and have carefully 

 revised and reduced the lists of sorts and given fuller 

 hints on spraying and insect pests than before. The 



