INTRODUCTION. 
The Revised Catalogue of Fruits prepared under the joint auspices 
of the American Pomological Society and the Division of Pomology of 
the United States Department of Agriculture is herewith submitted. 
In making this revision the chairman of the committee on revision 
has availed himself of the experience of his able predecessor, Hon. 
T. T.Lyon, and, through correspondence, of many practical pomologists. 
Many sources of information have been sought and repeated efforts 
have been made to secure accurate and conservative opinions on the 
merits of varieties and their adaptability to the several districts. But 
notwithstanding these efforts the chairman of your committee is aware 
that this revision is not without defects. 
The highest aim and desire of your committee has beeu to present 
reliable data concerning the behavior of varieties in various sections of 
our country. If this desire has not been realized it has been largely 
due to the difficulties experienced in outlining districts sufficiently 
homogeneous in soil, climate, and other important features, and in 
securing responses to the numerous inquiries sent out to practical fruit 
growers. While these difficulties have beeu quite real, it is yet due 
the fruit growers to say that they are as a class very generous in giving 
out information gathered through their experience. 
Actuated by a desire to make the work as reliable as possible and 
therefore a safe guide to planters and others seeking such information, 
the workof this revision has been done at Washington, where easy access 
could be had to the library and records of the Division of Pomology 
as well as opportunity for frequent consultations with the Pomologist 
and his corps of assistants. All uncertainties of origin, nomenclature, 
etc., have been carefully investigated with a view to arriving at correct 
conclusions. 
The general plan of the Catalogue is based on that of its immediate 
predecessor, which was largely the work of that eminent pomologist, 
the former chairman of your committee on revision, Hon. T. T. Lyon, 
of Michigan. Thedistricts have been somewhat changed in boundaries 
and increased in number, in order, if possible, to conform more closely 
to practical as well as scientific principles. The map has also been 
enlarged and the boundaries of the districts made more distinct. 
In view of the lack of knowledge oil the part of any but a resident 
expert concerning the behavior of varieties and the true status of fruit 
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