80 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



stock. This results from the early fruiting of the quince, 

 which imparts its own precocity to the scion. We realize a 

 corresponding hastening to maturity when a scion is grafted 

 into a pear tree which has also arrived at a bearing state; 

 especially is this to be expected when the stock is, in itself, 

 one of a precocious character. If any facts seem to oppose 

 this doctrine, they are either exceptions to the general law, 

 or results of locality and cultivation. The bud contains the 

 embryo tree, and the strong, precocious stock constrains it 

 to elaborate more material into wood and foliage, and thus 

 promotes both growth and fruitfulness. Witness the pear, which 

 often fruits the fourth year from seed, when grafted on the 

 quince. By this process a gentleman in this vicinity has pro- 

 duced fruit in the third and fourth year from seed. We know 

 a seedling from the Seckel pear, grafted on the Bartlett, which 

 bore in four years from the seed. Other seedlings hate been 

 brought into bearing by grafting on the quince in five years, 

 while the original plants, in all these instances, were only 

 three to five feet in height, and would require several addi- 

 tional years to bring them into bearing. It is not reasonable 

 to suppose that a seedling pear, which, in two years, in a given 

 location, attains the height of one or two feet with but few 

 branches, will fruit as early as a scion from the same seed- 

 ling, when grafted on a strong tree, which elaborates and 

 assimilates through its abundant branches and luxuriant foli- 

 age, ten times the amount of all the elements constituting 

 growth and maturity. We therefore recommend the grafting 

 and budding of seedling fruits at the earliest possible moment. 



VI. — The Pear upon the Quince Stock. 



In conformity with suggestions of the Board, we introduce, 

 in this connection, some thoughts respecting the cultivation 

 of the pear upon the quince stock, as strong objections have 

 been waged against this practice by gentlemen of high respecta- 

 bility ; and especially as we have often expressed our judgment 

 in its favor, and in opposition to their opinion. 



The failure of the pear upon the quince, in every instance, 

 we imagine, is to be ascribed, either to improper selection 

 of varieties, to uncongenial soil, or to inappropriate treatment. 

 Only a limited number of varieties have as yet hcen proved 



