PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. 



A work by the veteran pomologist, Thomas Rivers, 

 needs no commendation. That it has passed through 

 thirteen editions in England, shows the high estima- 

 tion in which it is held there. We republish it 

 without any alteration, and without any attempt to 

 Americanize it. No foreign work can be taken by 

 the American gardener as an absolute guide, and 

 there are many things in this which can have little 

 or no application in this country. Yet the work is 

 full of practical suggestions, and no one who has a 

 fruit-garden can fail to find in it many hints of great 

 value. We have no work that treats in such detail 

 of the garden culture of dwarf pear trees. In this 

 country we plant dwarfs, and are dissatisfied at the 

 results they give in ordinary orchard culture. Mr. 

 Rivers truly says: "It must always be recollected 

 that pears on quince stocks are strictly garden trees, 



