92 QUINCE CULTURE. 
or fourth time. An excess of wood is the occasion of 
barrenness oftener than is supposed. The tree exhausts 
its strength in sustaining and extending its woody fiber 
at so many points, that it has little vigor left to form 
fruit-buds or mature a crop of fruit. Nature intimates 
this sometimes by all at once dropping off all the fruit 
that is set after an abundant blossoming. ‘The outer 
branches are most fruitful as a rule; and if the head is 
kept open the fruit is better. 
The two pictures of one of my trees are an illustration 
of such an experience. This tree, now eight years old, 
Fig. 48. Fig. 49. 
BAD AND GOOD PRUNING. RESULT OF BAD PRUNING. 
grew about sixteen inches from the cutting the first 
year, and was then transplanted, and cut back to within 
six inches of the ground. The second year it made a 
growth of four shoots of about five feet each; and these, 
in turn, were cut back to about three feet, throwing out 
the side shoots that form the head. When five years old 
it stood eight feet and five inches high before it was 
pruned. It has borne since it was three years old, the 
last crop being one hundred and twenty quinces, the two 
largest filling a quart can. The longest shoot grown 
with this crop was six feet and four inches, in the midst 
of several others only a little shorter. 
