THE QUINCE. 105 



ed with ; for like the Morello cherry, it fruits from 

 the last year's young wood principally. It is there- 

 fore important that the young wood should be strong 

 and healthy in order that the fruit set free and swell 

 to a good size. To obtain this, the tree must be an- 

 nually pruned twice a year, in the summer and in 

 the spring. The summer pruning may be done when 

 the fruit is about swollen to half its size. This is 

 simply to cut out any decayed wood and the suckers 

 from the stem that weaken the strength of the tree ; 

 any weak young wood which enfeebles the fruiting 

 branches, may also be cut away. 



The spring pruning I recommend to be done 

 about the time the buds are beginning to expand ; in 

 this pruning all the dead wood is to be cut out, and 

 the thin slender shoots. The fruiting shoots which 

 are of the last year's growth are then to be chosen 

 and to be left regularly over the tree a convenient 

 distance, say fifteen or eighteen inches apart, when 

 the remainder of the young wood is pruned off in 

 every part of the tree. 



ART. 4. On the General Culture of Fruit. 



After what has been said of the culture of fruit 

 trees under the different heads of the nursery plant- 

 ing, and the separate divisions of the different na- 

 tural families of fruit, little remains to be spoken of 

 here, nor would it be excusable to again tax the 

 reader's patience by reiterating a tautological expla- 

 nation of the different modes of practice recommend- 

 ed to be followed ; although perhaps a few com- 

 ments on the general outline of culture may not be 

 unacceptable to the inquiring practitioner. Leav- 

 ing then the modes of propagation, planting, pru- 



