Barry's Fruit Garden

INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION. The subject of this treatise is one in which almost all classes of the community are more or less practically en- gaged and interested. Agriculture is pursued by one class, and commerce by another the mechanic arts, fine arts, and learned professions by others but fruit culture, to a greater or less extent, by all. It is the desire of every man, whatever may be his pursuit or condition in life, whether he live in town or country, to enjoy fine fruits, to provide them for his family, and, if possible, to cultivate the trees in his own garden with his own hands. The agriculturist, whatever be the extent or condition of his grounds, considers an orchard, at least, indispensable. The merchant or professional man who has, by half a lifetime of drudgery in town, secured a fortune or a competency that enables him to retire to a country or suburban villa, looks forward to his fruit garden as one of the chief sources of those rural comforts and pleasures he so long and so earnestly labored and hoped for. The nrtizan who has laid up enough from his earnings to purchase a homestead, considers the plant- ing of his fruit-trees as one ofthe first and most important steps towards improvement. Jle anticipates the pleasure of tending them in his spare hours, of watching their growth and progress to maturity, and of gathering their ripe and delicious fruits, and placing them before his family and friends as the valued products of his own garden, and of his own skill and labor. Fortunately, in the United States, land is so easily obtained as to be within the reach of every industrious man and the climate and soil being so favorable to the production of fruit, Ameri- cans, if they be not already, must become truly a nation of fruit growers. Fruit culture, therefore, whether considered as a branch of profitable industry, or as exercising a most beneficial influence upon the health, habits, and tastes of the people, becomes a great national interest, and whatever may as- sist in making it better understood, and more interesting, and better adapted to the various wants, tastes, and cir- cumstances of the community, cannot fail to subserve the public good. Within a few years past it has received an unusual de- gree of attention. Plantations of all sorts, orchards, gardens, and nurseries, have increased in numbers and extent to a degree quite unprecedented not in one section or locality, but from the extreme north to the southern limits of the fruit-growing region. Foreign supplies of trees have been required to meet the suddenly and greatly increased demand. Treatises and periodicals devoted to the subject have increased rapidly and circulated widely. Horticultural societies have been organized in all parts while exhibitions, and national, State, and local conven- tions of fruit growers, have been held to discuss the merits of fruits and other kindred topics. To those unacquainted with the previous condition of fruit culture in the inferior ofthe country, this new, planting spirit has appeared as a sort of speculative mania and the idea has suggested itself to them that the country will soon be overstocked with fruits. This is a greatly mistaken apprehension. After all that has been done, let us look at the actual condition of fruit culture at the present time...