THE APPLE CULTURIST. 1876. A COMPLETE TREATISE FOR THE PRACTICAL POMOLOGIST. TO AID IN PROPAGATING THE APPLE, AND CULTIVATING ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS OF FRUIT, YOUNG AND OLD TREES, By SERENO EDWARDS TODD, AUTHOR OF "TODD'S YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL," "AMERICAN WHEAT CULTURIST," Age 837.10 HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY GIFT OF JAMES STURGIS PRAY December 19, 1981 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, HARPER & BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 65. DEDICATED TO THE REV. THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER, D.D. MY HIGHLY-ESTEEMED FRIEND,-Understanding, in a measure, your cheerful zeal and co-operation in every philanthropic enterprise which tends in any way to render the world wiser, and mankind better and happier, and knowing your appreciative taste for luscious apples, permit me to dedicate to you a little volume on the culture of your favorite fruit. The foundation of our holy religion lies in the virtuous industry of the people. Hence, in our efforts to render the human family the recipients of the greatest good, we need to educate their lower faculties first. If we teach a nation to culti vate bountiful crops of fine wheat, and to produce large supplies of excellent apples and other fruit, we have secured a foundation on which it will be comparatively easy to develop the finer and nobler faculties of the soul. Taking this view of the duties of our mortal state, it is a cheering thought that, while we played and ate apples together in the days of boyhood, we may labor side by side-I at laying the foundation, and yourself in lifting up and fortifying a glorious superstructure of manhood-in society, where virtue, religion, and truth are the crowning excellences. If we go where no boughs laden with choice fruit bend to kiss the rosy cheeks of guileless children playing beneath, and where no waving grain rolls in the summer breezes like a sea of gold, we shall find a pall of heathenish darkness resting on the people like a mighty incubus. Hence, I send out this little book to the world, with the hope that it will perform the duties of a philanthropic pioneer in preparing the rough ways of civilized life for the more complete enjoyment of an elevated manhood. I trust it may be found a timely vade mecum in the hands of young men who have a desire to establish happy homes and to cultivate choice fruit. Superb apples are the product of Eden. A good boy with a hatful of Sweet Boughs and a pocketful of gingerbread will always be found a more tractable pupil when getting his lessons in the Catechism, than if the stomach were distended with heavy animal food of a stimulating character. A home without children and destitute of apples, is like a beautiful grove without the cheering songs of birds. What delightful memories dance in the sunshine of our boyhood, as our thoughts revert to the homes of our early years, on fair Cayuga's fertile slope in Central New York, where the pathway of life was embellished with apple-trees which seldom failed to shower down golden luxuries in great profusion! Those were halcyon days in our happy experience. Fond memory delights to linger in the extensive apple-orchards where bountiful supplies of Sweet Boughs, Swaars, Spitzenbergs, and other choice varieties rendered material aid in smoothing the asperities of our buoyant existence; and we often wish we were boys againif it were possible to begin a new career with our present experience-that we might again rejoice in the delight which once swelled the young heart at the sight of hatfuls and pocketfuls of ruby apples. With my best wishes for your success in all your labors of love, and that your last days may be replete with joy and gladness, I remain your faithful friend, Brooklyn, L. I. SERENO EDWARDS TODD. |