INTRODUCTION. 



WE live in a progressive age, when knowledge is 

 greatly increased, and the mental horizon widened by 

 the researches and observations of experimenters in hor- 

 ticulture, as iii every other pursuit. Improvement in 

 quince culture has been remarkably slow, yet, on the 

 whole, has certainly attained to an encouraging state of 

 progress. The markets of the country are beginning to 

 be fairly supplied with this fruit, where but a few years 

 ago it was very scarce. 



For both ornament and profit I know of no fruit that 

 can be planted with better promise of success than the 

 quince. In a city yard, or a village garden, there will be 

 some spot for a tree or two ; and on a farm, large or 

 small, the judicious planting of this fruit will be a most 

 profitable investment. The method of culture here 

 described has been attended with marked success. In 

 practice, the difference between success and failure often 

 depends on a little thing, very easily overlooked by the 

 most skilful. But as a good general organizes a victory 

 out of a defeat, so will a good culturist learn by his 

 failures to succeed in further trials, as by them he gets 

 back to first principles. 



Quince culture is both an art and a science. One 

 great reason why the cultivation of the quince has been so 

 much neglected is, that it was accepted as a foregone con- 

 clusion that no success was to be expected in the place 

 and with the facilities at command. But now, with the 

 multiplication, improvement, and cultivation well under- 

 stood, and reduced to some degree of exactness, it is as 

 reasonable to expect success with this as with any other 

 fruit. 



