239 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Third — Between those which succeed well and those which do 

 not succeed at all, are others, which will grow ou this stock for a 

 longer or shorter term of years, and bear more or less.* 



Fourth — Some varieties of the quince, as for example, the Orange 

 quince, which is the one most cultivated for its fruit, are unfit to 

 be used as a stock for the pear. 



Fifth — The proper treatment of pears on the quince root is 

 something very different from what may be considered good 

 orchard treatment of apple trees, or even from what would usually 

 be considered extraordinarily good treatment for them. They 

 require a more costly preparation of soil, and a higher culture. 



The culture of the pear on the quince is not the novelty which 

 many suppose. It has been practised in France for two hundred 

 years or more, and at the present time at least four-fifths of the 

 trees planted there for bearing (and no country in the world is so 

 well supplied with pears as France) are on the quince root. In 

 England it has been practised certainly for more than one hundred 

 jT^ears. In the correspondence between Collinson and Bartram in 

 1763, the former, probably replying to some inquiry of the latter, 

 says, " What I am persuaded will prevent its dropping the fruit, 

 if some quinces were planted in the lower part of the garden, near 

 the spring, and graft them with the pear, it meliorates the fruit. 

 By long experience our pears are grafted on the quince stock and 

 succeed better than on the pear stock with us." For more than a 

 hundred years no objections were urged against the use of the 

 qu'nce as a stock for the pear, and its advantages were generally 

 recognized. 



Within a comparatively recent period, hundreds upon hundreds 

 of new pears have been brought into notice. Great enthusiasm 

 was felt regarding their excellence. Thousands were anxious to 

 fruit these new sorts at the earliest possible period. Nurserymen, 

 to meet the demand, worked them on the quince before it could be 

 known whether they would succeed permanently on it or not, and 

 the demand for stocks was so urgent that any or all sorts were 

 used indiscriminately. Now as some varieties of the pear will 

 grow vigorously on the quince for a year or two, but show unfit- 

 ness for it plainly enough as soon as they come into bearing, and 

 as thousands of the trees grown as above fell into the hands of 



*It should be remarked that some varieties, like the Urbaniste for example, which 

 grow slowly at first on the quince, eventually make fully as strong and permanent 

 trees as any. 



