THE QUINCE 241 



The dried or canned fruit retains the much 

 desired quince flavor. 



At the time when the Van Deman quince was 

 introduced, in 1893, I had growing for compari- 

 son trees of all the other varieties above men- 

 tioned. But no one of them bore fruit at all 

 comparable to the new variety. 



The new tree, in addition to being a very 

 prolific bearer, also had the habit of early 

 fruiting. 



Trees two years old quite commonly bear fruit. 



From Florida a Van Deman quince is re- 

 ported that took on eight feet of new growth 

 within one year from the time of planting. In 

 Washington two trees in their third season bore 

 twenty fine quinces weighing from twelve to 

 fourteen ounces each as their first crop, and a 

 little later a second crop declared to be quite 

 equal to the other. 



SEEDLING TESTS AND NEW CROSSES 



I had, of course, made crosses between various 

 other varieties in the quince orchard and in due 

 course developed other seedlings that showed 

 valuable characteristics and had learned by ex- 

 perience to be able to select seedlings of the 

 quince, as of other fruit trees, by observing the 

 character of the leaf and stem. 



