Third. Many kinds unfitted to succeed on the quince, and which experience has 



rejected, formed the great bulk of the number. 



In regard to the first cause of failure, the doctor does not seem to recognize 

 the necessity of caution, and, perhaps, was quite as unconscious of the defect as 

 of the second. 



The pear must be budded on a free, rapid-growing variety of quince stock. 

 Such is the Angers Quince, which will expand in growth with the pear, instead 

 of ceasing to grow beyond three or four inches in diameter. Shoots of this 

 variety seven feet in height, and one and a quarter inches in diameter ; the growth 

 of two seasons can be seen in my grounds. 



Second. The office of the quince is entirely as a root, never as a trunk or stem. 

 Every portion of the bark of the quince will send out roots, with the slightest 

 shade and moisture. It may therefore safely be buried several inches below its 

 natural position, as it readily assimilates its character to its condition. When 

 buried two to three inches below the surface, new roots fill the ground ; the tree 

 is steadied at the weakest point (the juncture of the two species), and uUimately 

 after the habit of the tree is formed ; and fruit has been enjoyed for several years ; 

 the rootlets formed by the portion of pear stock buried, sustain the tree beyond 

 the possibility of fracture. Of (600) six hundred trees, three years planted, and 

 this year removed, one-half had rooted from the small portion of pear stock buried ; 

 and (if permitted by the Editor) I may, in a future article, give a few simple 

 instructions, to induce or prevent pears on the quince rooting from their own 

 stock. 



Of the third cause of failure, I shall have abundant acknowledgment of truth 

 from the readers of the Horticidturist. No single cause of wholesale denunciation 

 of the quince stock will compare with the injudicious working of all sorts of pears 

 on the quince stock. We have but very few that succeed, and fewer that are 

 superior upon it, and a proper selection of these for localities will insure success. 

 These have been so recommended, that it would be superfluous to repeat them 

 here. Among them, however, we may say, the peerless Duchesse holds her undis- 

 puted rank ; and Dr. Ward, in justice to her, either ought not to have decried 

 the quince stock, or he ought not to have grown the largest Duchesse upon it 

 ever known ; thirty-five ounces, and every ounce an argument against him. As 

 to the doctor's challenge, beside coming rather late in the season, it certainly 

 struck me as well as all with whom I have conversed who have read all his articles, 

 that there was a gross inconsistency in writing down the pear on quince, and then 

 challenging fruiterers to produce equally fine pears with his, grown on the abused 

 quince. 



The universal verdict seems to be, regarding the articles in the Horticulturist, 

 that the doctor should have examined other grounds than his own, if, possibly, 

 his cultivation, kinds, or trees, were not properly suited to the wants of the double 

 plant, before he ventured to pronounce so imperatively against the experience of 

 French cultivators for one hundred years, and English and American poniologists 

 for twenty and thirty years. That his articles very blindly expressed his belief, 

 containing within themselves self-refuting contradictions, and were altogether 

 quite obscure, at times, whether he did not intend ultimately to pronounce in 

 favor, instead of against the quince stock. That the doctor should either stop 

 growing good pears (of all the kinds claimed for it) on the quince stock, or he 

 should stop writing against it — all of which, I hope, he will take in good i)art, as 

 I have a hearty respect, and some affection, for any man who loves a tree as well 



~ understand the doctor does. 



