426 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



practiced near the bodies ; frequent hoeing will be sufficient. Too much 

 stress cannot be laid upon the necessity of searching for the borer, as no 

 other tree seems to be a greater favorite with the little pest. Salt is espe- 

 cially valuable, and should always be added to the compost applied to 

 quinces. Soapsuds are invaluable for the same purpose, and always show 

 plainly in an increase of size and color of fruit. A thrifty quince tree needs 

 little pruning, merely an occasional thinning, as the heads naturally thicken 

 up. It is impossible to grow fine fruit without good foliage, and to procure 

 the latter we must manure with no stinted hand, and apply wood-ashes or 

 muriate of potash occasionally. As we strive more for appearance than 

 quality in quinces for market, the above facts should never be lost sight of. 



Views of W. W. Meech. — The quince to be successfully grown wants a 

 good soil and location. Instead of being stuck into some fence corner and 

 left to the ravages of insects, put it in a good soil that will mature a paying 

 crop of corn or potatoes. It will do well in a dry soil if well worked. It 

 succeeds in a moist soil but dreads wet feet. 



In planting the trees be sure to dig a wide hole, and at least two shovel 

 blades deep. Fill in the top soil with rich earth, like the bottom of a poul- 

 try yard, or the wash of the roads, and cover all with a wide-spread mulch. 

 Nothing pays better than great care in the planting. Discard the old theory 

 that the quince should have little pruning more than to cut out dead wood 

 and water sprouts, with a little thinning to open the head of the tree. I 

 prune vigorously every year from the first, cutting back from one-half to 

 two-thirds the length of the shoots of the new wood, and thinning so as to 

 keep the head of the tree very open. The result is vigorous shoots, and 

 little of the fine brush that dies along the branches of nearly all the quince 

 trees I have seen. Meech's Prolific treated in this way sends out a fruit 

 stem from about every bud left ; and other varieties show great improve- 

 ment. By this means alone I have restored fruitfulness to barren trees. 



Be sure to feed the trees well every year. A good time is in the fall and 

 winter, when rains are sure to carry fertility to the roots, and in the spring 

 add a sowing of salt to season their food. Any fertilizer is good. I get it 

 from the stable, the privy, the poultry yard, the street gutter, the compost 

 heap, and all vegetable and animal remains, which includes ashes and the 

 house-slops of the chamber and wash-room. 



In cultivating the quince do not use the plow. The cultivator often goes 

 deep enough to injure the roots. The best feeding roots of the quince are 

 near the surface of the ground. Clean culture will be found as beneficial in 

 quince culture as with hoed crops of good husbandry. By keeping down 

 all weeds and grass there is no harbor for the borer at the collar of the tree. 



Palmer's Monthly on Quinces. — Mulching quince trees in winter and 

 heavy manuring in summer are the chief secrets of success with this fruit. 

 The top is nearly or quite as hardy as the apple, and if the root is properly 

 protected and the soil enriched, quinces can be grown in most localities 

 where apples succeed. No crop will better repay intelligent care than quin- 

 ces. It is true that in many cases quince trees have succeeded better under 

 neglect than under a system of culture that mangled the fine roots and left 

 the surface soil bare to freeze to the entire depths of the roots in winter. 

 Mulching with coarse manure is a great deal better than cultivation. If in 



