SECRETARY'S REPORT. 231 



persons who knew little or nothing of the requisites to successful 

 culture, it cannot be wondered at if disappointment and denunciation 

 followed the results of the hasty, partial and unskillful experience 

 of those who planted them. On the other hand, there have been 

 those who patiently learned what sorts do succeed on this stock, 

 and liberally bestowed high culture and good management, and 

 the success of these, whether we regard the size, beauty, excel- 

 lence or abundance of the fruit, or the prices which the product 

 has commanded in our large markets, is very marked and scarcely 

 credible by many who have not witnessed the results. 



To the most common objection made to the quince as a stock, 

 namely, that trees upon it are short lived, it is enough to state that 

 many trees are known to be at the present time in active, healthy 

 life, and promising well for years to come, which have been planted 

 out fifteen, twenty, and some of them over thirty years, and which 

 have borne satisfactory crops annually. The terra "dwarfs," by 

 which pears on the quince root are usually called, conveys to 

 some minds an erroneous impression. It is true the tree is dwarfed 

 -somewhat by the influence of the stock, and thus early productive- 

 ness is induced, but the trees are not necessarily stunted, nor very 

 small, as their trunks not unfrequently attain a circumference of 

 fifteen or twenty inches, and sometimes more. 



The principal requisites to success are : 



First — A sufficiently sheltered location, either naturally so, or 

 made so, by screens of evergreens planted for the purpose, or by 

 some other means. 



Second — A good, strong, deep, moist soil, resting upon a natu- 

 rally porous subsoil, or else thoroughly drained. This should be 

 worked twenty inches or two feet deep, and made rich. 



Tliird — Plant trees budded either upon the Orleans or the An- 

 gers quince, and no others. 



Fourth — Plant no varieties which are not known to succeed well 

 upon the quince root. 



Fifth — Plant so that the point of junction between the quince 

 and the pear* shall be three inches heloio the surface when the 

 planting is finished and the surface leveled. This serves several 

 purposes. 



*The quince should be budded with the pear, in the nursery, as near the surface 

 of the ground as convenient — but the above rule is to be adhered to, without regard 

 to the height at which the operation might have been performed. 



