54 



Tlie Whole Secret of Growing Quinces. 



Vol. XII. 



out coming square against the edge of a pro- 

 jecting plank, the difficulty of getting on the 

 road is avoided. It is not neces:<ary to pin 

 or spike the plank to the sills. 



Perfect drainage must be secured, and to 

 that end, the ditches must be deep and wide, 

 and good sluices wherever water crosses the 

 road. This is the important point — drain 

 perfectly. 



The thickness of the plank must be de- 

 cided by the amount of travel. If it is suffi- 

 cient to insure the wearins, out, and not tiie 

 rotting out of the timber, four inches is the 

 thickness; if that thickness is not justified 

 by the travel, then three inches should be 

 used, but not less. The kind of timber is, 

 too, a point that must be controlled by cir- 

 cumstances. Pine is used at Toronto. Hem- 

 lock on the Salina road. In some of the 

 western States it is likely that oak might 

 be procured at a reasonable price. The 

 number of feet — board measure — of lumber 

 required for two sills four inches square, for 

 one mile, is 14,080. Plank, three inches 

 thick, for a single track eight feet wide, 

 will measure 126,720 feet. The grading 

 and laying a track, will vary in cost, accord- 

 ing to circumstances. When an old road 

 way is used, and hills are not to be cut down, 

 or vallies filled up, it will not vary much 

 from fifty cents a rod for one track. 



In those sections of the country where 

 lumber is cheap, plank roads must go into 

 very general use; and in some localities, it 

 is the only road that can be made to endure 

 the changes of the climate with any reason- 

 able outlay of money. Less power is re- 

 quired to draw loading over them, and they 

 are superior in every respect to McAdam 

 roads while they last. — ISew York Agricid- 

 lural Transac'tions. 



The Whole Secret of Grooving Quinces. 



We especially coinmeruJ the following cninmuriica- 

 tion on Quinces, which we find in a late number of 

 Downing's Horticulturist, to our readers. Tliere is no 

 question but the cultivation of this fruit is too much 

 neglected in this vicinity for the farmers' profit. We 

 never saw the quinces in market quite so fine as they 

 were last autumn: and we well recollect the seemingly 

 extravagant prices at which they were sold. We wish 

 we could arouse our readers to a far more energetic 

 movement, in relation to the growing of fruit. It 

 takes time, it is true, but good selections can scarcely 

 fail to yield handsome profits.— Ed. 



Sir, — I will comply with your request to 

 write down for the benefit of your readers 

 my practice in cultivating the Quince tree. 

 The commendations you are pleased to be- 

 stow on my plantation of tliis fruit tree, leads 

 me to suppose that I may have struck out a 



mode better than is generally knovvn or 

 practised. 



If so, " it ought," as you say, " to be a 

 secret no longer." Indeed, I have had too 

 many valuable hints from the pages of your 

 journal, not to be willing to add my mite, 

 should it be in my power, to the general 

 stock of information. 



I will begin, then, by saying that the 

 great difference, which you have yourself 

 noticed, between the growth and yield of 

 my quince trees, and that of cultivators com- 

 monly, is. not that I have discovered a new 

 mode of raising this valuable fruit. It is 

 rather that I cultivate my trees well, and 

 tnost persons do not cultivate them at all. 



This sounds like a broad statement; but 

 it is true. I have a neighbour who rides 

 horticulture like a real hobby. His garden 

 and orchard are filled with the hundreds of 

 new pears, and other prodigies of the nur- 

 series. I must do him the justice to say, 

 that he grows these well. He told me last 

 week that he had three hundred and forty 

 sorts of pears in his collection ! But would 

 you believe it? the only quinces he has, are 

 three trees, half starved, and thrust into an 

 obscure quarter of his grounds, where they 

 have neither been manured nor dug around, 

 I dare say, for years! And thus he sends 

 to me every year for some of my "handsome 

 quinces," under the plea, that his soil does 

 not suit them. 



Believe me, the quince tree is a great suf- 

 ferer from the common delusion that it is a 

 bush that wants a dainp and shady place; 

 that it will not grow in a dry soil; and that 

 it does not need any manure. 



My theory and practice are based on the 

 very opposite of these three propositions. 

 My plantations, as you saw, are on a high 

 and dry soil, in an open sunny exposure, and 

 in ground kept thoroughly enriched. 



I have arrived at this plan of culture by 

 easy stages. Indeed, I have, at the present 

 time, some rows of quinces, indifferently 

 planted in the first place, ia soil neither 

 deepened nor duly manured beforehand. Of 

 course, they bear only about half the crop 

 of my later plantation, that has been better 

 treated from the beginning. 



The course I have now settled upon, 

 which I may say has been attended with 

 perfect success, is as follows: Premising 

 that the quince will grow on any soil that 

 will give good corn or potatoes, the first 

 ma.xim is, that it should be well prepared 

 before planting. 7'his is done by the aid of 

 that great earth regenerator, the subsoil 

 plough. Two or three weeks, if possible, 

 before the planting season, the land where 

 the quince orchard is to be set, should be 



