Viii . INTEODUCnON. 



cultivators, or even nursery-men, of dwarfing trees, of tHe uses of 

 certain stocks, or of modes of propagation and pruning by which 

 trees are made to bear early, and are adapted to different circum- 

 stances. The entire routine of the propagation and management 

 of trees was conducted generally in the simplest and rudest manner. 

 Whether for the garden or the orchard they were propagated in 

 the same manner, on the same stocks, and in the same form 

 taken from the nursery, planted out and left there to assume such 

 forms as nature or accident might impose, and produce fruit at 

 BUch a time as natural circumstances would admit. 



The art of planting fifty trees on a quarter of an acre of 

 ground, and bringing them into a fruitful state in four or five 

 years at most, was entirely unknown. Small gardens were en- 

 cumbered with tall, unshapely, and unfruitful trees, that afforded 

 no pleasure to the cultivator ; and thousands of persons, who are 

 now the most enthusiastic cultivators, were entirely discouraged 

 from the attempt. 



Fruit gardening, properly speaking, may be said only to have 

 commenced. It is no longer a matter of mere utility, but of 

 taste also ; and, therefore, adaptation, variety, and beauty, are 

 sought for in garden trees and modes of culture and management. 

 Nothing so distinguishes the taste of modern planting as the 

 partiality for dwarf trees, and the desire to obtain information in 

 regard to their propagation and treatment. 



This has not been anticipated by any of our authors. The 

 standard or orchard system alone is fully treated of, as being the 

 only one practised ; and this requires so little skill in the art of 

 culture, that only the simplest instructions have been given. 

 The very elements of the science have been unexplained and 

 unstudied, and cultivators in the main find themselves both desti- 

 tute of knowledge in regard to the management of trees in tba 



