A GUIDE TO THE LITERATURE OF POMOLOGY. 



The works of Laurence had a great popularity, but they were 

 overshadowed by the excellent book of Stephen Switzer, whose 

 " Practical Fruit Gardener " was published in 1724. In this the whole 

 range of fruit culture is treated in a terse and clear style, and on every 

 page it bears witness to a practical knowledge which was not too 

 common in writers of those days. That Switzer had no great opinion 

 of Quintinye's work is evident, and he speaks of his " round-about 

 way " of conveying his opinions, but he is occasionally " oblidged '* 

 to admit that Quintinye was at times in the right. 



Switzer was a nurseryman ; his advice on stocks was therefore 

 from first-hand experience, and it is curious to note in this matter how 

 little things have changed since his day. His book must be given a 

 very important place in British fruit literature, and some writers have 

 even gone so far as to consider it the first book on fruit culture of any 

 value. 



The next work of importance is the " Pomona " of Batty Langley. 

 This is a folio volume ; it was pubHshed in 1729, and is of interest as 

 the first work in the English language which attempts to illustrate the 

 different varieties of fruits. These illustrations are line drawings, but 

 they certainly show a real appreciation of the characters of the fruits. 

 The remarks on cultivation and descriptions of varieties do not present 

 any special features, but the work was evidently popular, as it is 

 frequently met with despite the adjective " rare," so often used in 

 booksellers' catalogues. The author was born in 1696 ; he was an 

 architect and garden designer, and published several books on this 

 subject. 



The remaining authors of the eighteenth century, such as Hitt, 

 the prolific Abercrombie, and the voluble Forsyth, need not for our 

 present purpose detain us. The details of culture had been well 

 thrashed out by previous authors, and little room for innovations was 

 left. The development of pomology henceforward was mainly in the 

 systematic description, and in the raising of new varieties. 



There is, however, one author, l'Abbe Schabol, whose work is at 

 first a seeming contradiction to this statement, though in fact it is not 

 so. His contribution consists in placing on record the remarkable 

 system of peach training which had for long been practised by the 

 gardeners of Montreuil. In the Journal Economique " of 1755 this 

 method was explained to the great confusion of the scientific, who 

 found untutored peasants training their trees on scientifically correct 

 principles. It was Schabol's good fortune to publish this method to the 

 world, at first in the publication above-mentioned and afterwards in his 

 " Dictionnaire des Jardiniers," 1767, and his " La Pratique du Jardin- 

 age," 1772. The latter work well repays study, as the instructions for 

 pruning and the systems of training are described and figured with 

 much detail, and several novel practices are there to be found. 



It is necessary to return now to Continental writers to see the dawn 

 of that greater exactitude in description which was to raise pomology 

 to a branch of applied botany. 



