INTRODUCTION, XV 
but few persons who have planted pear trees 
in a large way who have not fallen into the 
same class of mistakes, and who by so doing 
have not had their pockets and patience sorely 
tried. 
The science of growing trees that will pro- 
duce choice fruit is very simple when once 
understood. It is during the time spent in 
wading in the dark, without any beacon to 
guide their steps, that the inexperienced suffer 
from a series of disappointments. It is folly 
to suppose that every person who plants an 
orchard of pear trees succeeds. On the con- 
trary, as far as my personal observation has 
extended, there has been more money lost 
than made, for I could enumerate five persons 
who have utterly failed, to every one who has 
made pear culture profitable. 
Think but an instant of the number of pear 
trees that have been sold annually for the past 
fifteen or twenty years, and then search for 
the healthy, vigorous orchards that should by 
this time be producing abundantly! Such 
orchards are but few in comparison with those 
of sickly, misshapen and unproductive trees 
everywhere to be found. | 
There are many obvious reasons for the nu- 
