requiring very small space, and exhausting 

 none of the soil under cultivation, and their 

 heads shade no ground in consequence of 

 being limited by fruning, to six feet in di- 

 ameter, and not being allowed to extend 

 upward more than eight or ten feet. 



On an area sixty feet square, you may 

 plant/oiir pear stocks ; these will shade with 

 their branches, and exhaust with their roots, 

 at least one-half of this square. On such a 

 lot, you may place around its borders twenty 

 quince stocks, which will neither shade the 

 ground, nor exhaust its soil. These stocks 

 will produce you fine melting fruit with cer- 

 tainty, if taken care of, Avhile all the care of 

 the gardener and proprietor united, will not 

 prevent some kinds of pears from canker, 

 cracks, and blight, if produced on pear 

 stocks. 



" But," say the advocates for pear stocks, 

 " the quince is subject to be destroyed by 

 the borer !" 



This is true, and so is every thing sub- 

 ject to be destroyed in one way or another, 

 if it is not taken care of, b}'^ those whose 

 duty it is to look after them. 



I have nearly or quite a thousand pears 

 on quince stocks in my garden, and I doubt 

 if any one cultivating an equal number of 

 pear stocks of the same size, has for the 

 last twenty-five years, lost as few trees as I 

 have. 



With respect to the borers, if care be taken 

 to examine the trees twice a year, without 

 fail, say in the middle of June, and the 

 middle of October, there will be few or no 

 borers in the garden. There is little or no 

 trouble or labor in this, if it be done regu- 

 larly. My gardener will examine and de- 

 stroy all borers that he finds in six or seven 

 hundred trees, in a day. I have counted 

 seven hundred and thirty-four trees, which 

 he had examined in that time. This, there- 

 fore, is no herculean trouble or labor. 



QUINCE STOCKS FOR PEARS. 413 



These quince stock pear trees may be 

 fruited on all sides by judicious pruning, 

 from the top to the bottom, within a foot of 

 the ground ; and as the melting or soft- 

 fleshed pears, which are called Beurres, are 

 much better on these than they are on the 

 pear stocks, you may have more good fruit 

 on your quince, than you can get on your 

 pear stocks. 



If j'^ou want trees to plant in grass ground, I 

 should recommend pearstocks by all means ; 

 but in gardens I should choose to have the 

 bulk of my fruit on quinces. 



If you undertake to raise pears on seed- 

 lings, or layers of one or two years old, you 

 will find how much sooner they get their 

 fruit on quinces. Quince layers are very 

 easily obtained by any one having quince 

 trees in their grounds. The Portugal 

 Quince tree, is the best to strike from, as 

 they grow more freely and larger than the 

 common sort, and will increase with the 

 growth of the pear scion that is put into it ; 

 but this, the common sort will not do. But 

 it is much cheaper, and more sure, to im- 

 port from France, both your seedling pears 

 and quince layers, if you wish to cultivate 

 a nursery. 



I have now in my garden, many pear 

 trees on quince bottoms, growing both as 

 standards and as espaliers, which were 

 planted upwards of twenty years ago. They 

 are both in perfect health, and full-bearing 

 every summer. The only objection to the 

 standard pear stock is, that if left to itself, 

 its head grows too large for its roots to sup- 

 port it steadily in the ground, but this ob- 

 jection does not apply to the espaliers. It is 

 therefore best to keep their heads pruned 

 within limited dimensions, if you raise them 

 as standards, but quince bottoms are far 

 preferable for espaliers to pear stocks. 



Pears on quince stocks will live to a good 

 age, if taken care of, and no exciting ma- 



