PREFACE. 



Amongst the various pursuits which occupy the attention of man, 

 whether considered in regard to profit or amusement, few hold a 

 more distinguished place than Horticulture. Even in the primeval 

 ages of the world, before luxury had established its controul over 

 every relation of human life, and the wants and necessities of man 

 were confined to the immediate productions of his native soil, we 

 even then find, that the culture of the garden was one of the pri- 

 mary objects of his industry, and the principal source on which he 

 depended for his subsistence. With the lapse of years, the benefits 

 of Horticulture gradually developed themselves, and the pages of 

 history furnish us with innumerable examples, of the great and im- 

 portant advantages which have resulted to a country, in which its 

 princes and nobility have applied themselves to the study of 

 practical Horticulture, thereby opening fresh sources of national 

 grandeur, and enlarging the sphere of individual prosperity. 

 Grateful, however, as we ought to be to such exalted characters, 

 who, indifferent to the elevated station in which their destiny 

 has placed them, have boldly shaken off the fetters thrown over 

 them by ignorance and prejudice, and have descended from " their 

 high estate " to vAeid the spade and plough ; yet our thanks 

 are still more pre-eminently due to such men as a Bacon, 

 an Evelyn, and a Piatt, who have not only, by the transcendant 

 power of their abilities, penetrated into the arcana of agricultural 

 and botanical science, but who have also, by their invaluable writ- 

 ings, transmitted to us the results of their laborious researches, and 

 thereby laid the foundation to those important discoveries in the 

 practical management of the garden for which the present age is so 

 happily distinguished. 



Agriculture, and with it its twin -sister. Horticulture, may be 

 considered as the immediate precursors of human civilization ; and 

 we find that all nations advanced in general and individual pros* 

 perity, in proportion to their progress in, and to their attachment 

 to agricultural pursuits. The native beholds his fields ripening with 

 corn —his vineyards blushing with the grape— the spirit of patriot- 



