SOILS FOR THE QUItfCE. 33 



CHAPTER IV. 

 SOILS FOR THE QUINCE. 



THERE is a diversity of opinion as to what kind of soil is 

 best suited for the quince. One class of observers, who 

 have seen this fruit growing in high perfection in the rich 

 accumulations washed down from the hill-sides for ages, 

 insist on a moist or alluvial soil. Others, with a suc- 

 cessful experience in a light sandy loam, may favor that. 

 Others still, observing that quinces grow successfully on 

 all kinds of soil, except dry sand or wet swamps, would 

 plant it anywhere, from the low lands along the sea-coast, 

 or margins of lakes and ponds, streams and rivers, to the 

 higher plains and table-lands, or on the hill-sides and 

 hill-tops of quite elevated locations. 



This fruit has attained high perfection in the moun- 

 tain regions of Georgia, and North and South Carolina. 

 J. Van Buren, of Clarksville, Georgia, says : " It is not 

 unusual to raise quinces five to five and a half inches in 

 diameter, fair, smooth, and beautiful, and of high flavor." 



The quince adapts itself to different soils and circum- 

 stances with remarkable success. The soil may have 

 a preponderance of sand, gravel, or clay, and yet be rich 

 in those fertilizing materials which adapt it to all wants. 

 An analysis of the wood, bark, and fruit will show that 

 the soil and atmosphere together have supplied it with 

 potash and lime, soda and silica, alum and iron, mag- 

 nesia and chlorine, phosphoric, sulphuric, and carbonic 

 acids, and moisture. To these add decaying animal and 

 vegetable matter, with needed water, light, heat, elec- 

 tricity, and the aerial gases, and we have the perfection 

 of fertility. A heavy clay soil will be improved by the 

 addition of sand or silica, because it will make it warmer, 

 and more open and friable. A light, sandy soil, will be 



