6io Bulletin 8o. 



particular attention to the quince interests of the Fifth Judicial 

 Department during the year, and have been able to draw certain 

 conclusions from the study ; and to this account I also add the 

 results of three years' observation of varieties made upon our own 

 grounds, and a sketch of experiments to control the leaf-blight. 



Soils and fertilizers. —11 is generally agreed, in this state, that 

 the best soil for quinces is a heavy clay loam ; that is, a clay soil 

 which has become friable by good cultivation, fertilizing and 

 draining. While the land should be well drained, it should 

 nevertheless retain moisture more readily than is necessary for 

 most other orchard fruits. Quinces often thrive upon light lands, 

 but they are rarely as productive and long-lived as upon the 

 heavier lands which I have described. According to Meech,* " in 

 selecting soils, the first choice should be a strong loam, with 

 enough sand in its composition to make it work easy. In a deep, 

 strong soil the trees should not be expected to come into as early 

 bearing as in the sandy soil, because the greater vigor of growth 

 does not soon tend to the formation of fruit buds ; but when they 

 do bear they make up for any lost time by the abundance and 

 quality of the fruit, and greater longevity, and immunity from 

 disease." 



There has been no explicit field experimentation in this country, 

 so far as I know, to discover the particular needs of the quince in 

 matters of food ; but the same general principles which apply to 

 other tree fruits will no doubt apply to this, and these matters are 

 discussed in Bulletin 72. It is now held that the controlling 

 factors in orchard fertilizers should be potash and phosphoric 

 acid rather than nitrogen; this last element induces growth, and 

 the trees themselves may be supposed to register the needs in this 

 direction. Trees which are yellow and stunted need either mois- 

 ture or nitrogen, or both — providing they are not attacked by in- 

 sect or fungous enemies — and these can be supplied by means of 

 shallow tillage and nitrogenous or fibrous fertilizers, such as barn 

 manures, green catch crops, or nitrogen in commercial form. If 

 the trees are very dark green, with large leaves, and are making 

 heavy growth at the expense of fruitfulness, either ni'rogen or-ex- 

 cessive cultivation .should be withheld for a time; or the trees may 



* Quince Culture, 34. 



