American Pomology. Apples

Transcriber's Note:
Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document has been preserved.
A Table of Contents has been added for the reader's convenience. There is no Chapter 13.
In the classification chapter inconsistant illustration placement has been regularized.
Click on the images to see a larger version.
290 ILLUSTRATIONS.

All patriots may realize a sense of pride, when they consider the capabilities of the glorious country in which we are favored to live; and while fostering no sectional feelings, nor pleading any local interests, yet, as Americans and as men, we may be allowed to love our own homes, our own neighborhoods, our States and regions; and we may be permitted to think them the brightest and best portions of the great Republic to which we all belong. Therefore the writer asks to be excused for expressing a preference for his own favored Northwest , and while claiming all praise for this noble expanse, he wishes still to be acknowledged as most devotedly an American Citizen, who feels the deepest interest in the prosperity of the whole country.
His fellow-laborers in the extensive field of Horticulture, who are scattered over the great Northwest, having called upon him for a work on fruits which should be adapted to their wants, the author has for several years devoted himself to the task of collecting materials from which he is preparing a work upon American Pomology, of which this is to be the first volume.
The title has been adopted as the most appropriate, because the book is intended to be truly American in its character, and, though it may be especially adapted to the wants of the Western States, great pains have been taken to make it a useful companion to the orchardists of all portions of our country.
When examining this volume, his friends are asked to look gently upon the many faults they may find, and they are requested also to observe the peculiarities by which this fruit book is characterized. Much to his regret, the author found that it was considered necessary to the completeness of the volume, that the general subject of fruit-growing should be treated in detail, and, therefore, introductory chapters were prepared; whereas, he had set out simply to describe the fruits of our country. To this necessity, as it was considered by his friends, the author yielded reluctantly, because he felt that this labor had already been thoroughly done by his predecessors, whose volumes were to be seen in the houses of all intelligent fruit-growers. From them he did not wish to borrow other men's ideas and language, and therefore undertook to write the whole anew, without any reference to printed books. But, of course, it is impossible to be original in treating such familiar and hackneyed topics as those which are discussed at every meeting of horticulturists all over the country, and which form the subject of the familiar discourse of the green-house and nursery, the potting-shed and the grafting-room, the garden and the orchard.