60 SEEDLDsG PEOPAGATION OF YA.RIETIES. 



some trees from about one half of tlie brauclies lay- 

 ered. Wlien it is desirable to do this somewhat 

 extensively, a "stool" may be formed by cutting off 

 the tree about a foot above the ground. The next 

 season there will be produced a dozen or more thrifty 

 shoots from a tree two years old, whicli may all be 

 layered as above described. When the shoots are too 

 high for this kind of treatment, incisions may be made 

 in them, and balls of clay and cow-dung mixed together 

 put over the incisions, inclosed with matting, and 

 tied. 



QUmCE STOCKS. 



Tliese are always propagated by layers or cuttings. 

 Any attempts at propagating by seeds would evidently 

 be unsuccessful in producing a uniform variety fitted 

 for budding with the Pear. 



The Angers and, latterly, the Paris varieties of the 

 Quince, are the only ones in use for this purpose. 

 The qualities needed for stocks are : free, rapid 

 growth ; a tendency to a large size so as to equal the 

 pear trunk, and to root freely from cuttings or layers ; 

 to have a cellular and ligneous formation that will fit 

 them to unite readily with that of the Pear. In those 

 varieties that refuse the Pear, or on wdiich it makes 

 an imperfect union, we shall perceive by examining 

 the . fracture where the pear w^ood cleaves from the 

 Quince, that the adhesion has been produced simply 

 by the irregular and grooved surfaces of the wood of 

 the bud and the stock, fitting into each other without 

 any intermingling of the ligneous fibres of eacli, 

 altliougli the bark of the two species has united to 

 form a sheath over the imperfect union. That inter- 



