172 QUINCE CULTURE. 
cats or a dog to hunt them. MUawks catch them by day 
and owls by night. Skunks, foxes, etc., also help to 
lessen their numbers. But, after all, they will multiply 
rapidly if grass and weeds are left in the orchard. The 
rabbit remedies will also answer for mice. 
Girdled trees may sometimes be saved, if the injury is 
discovered before the wounds get dry, by banking the 
tree with moist earth. A more certain way is by insert- 
ing a row of cions around the girdled place, either by 
halving them and inserting the ends under the bark 
above and below, or by using strips of bark for the same 
purpose. The edges of the bark should be cut smooth 
and even to insure success. In either case they should 
be well protected by grafting wax. 
CHAPTER XXV. 
MEDICINAL AND ECONOMIC USES OF THE QUINCE. 
Every part of the quince is useful. Its scarcity and 
consequent high price have kept it in the good house- 
keeper’s list of luxuries. But when its cultivation be- 
comes more general, it will come within the reach of all, 
and be in still greater demand. 
In the first century of the Christian era the old Roman 
Columella said: ‘‘ Quinces not only yield pleasure, but 
health.” A modern writer of note says: ‘‘ Medicinally, 
the quince is covling and strengthening. The juice 
is good against nausea. The ripe fruit eaten raw is 
said to be good for spitting of blood ; also for swollen 
spleen, dropsy, and difficult breathing.” 
‘The quince in the Materia Medica,” according to 
Lewis and Woodville, ‘‘is astringent and stomachic. 
The juice in nausea is to be given <n doses of a spoonful 
or two; so in vomitings, inodorous eructations, and some 
kinds of alvine fluxes. In the London Pharmacy this juice 
