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Geography and History of the Quince. 



Vol. XII. 



of all cultivated crops, including fruits, shrub- 

 bery, and flowers; the best seeds, mode of 

 planting, cultivating, gathering, and prepar- 

 ing for markets; the general principles of 

 vegetation and the laws of vegetable life. It 

 describes the principles of mechanics as ap- 

 plied to machinery used by farmers and plant- 

 ers ; the best machinery and implements for 

 agriculture, their uses and the particular su- 

 periority of some over others, ^nd their adapt- 

 edness for particular purposes. It gives the 

 latest improvements in those implements 

 which may have been made, and suggests 

 others; tells where they are to be found and 

 the benefits that will follow from their use. 

 It specifies new objects of cultivation, and 

 how they may be better prepared for a pro- 

 fitable market and more general use. 



This is the great design and scope of the 

 Agriculturist; and these are the paramount 

 objects of interest throughout America. No 

 country can ever enjoy solid prosperity un- 

 less an enlightened system of agriculture is 

 practised among its people, and this cannot 

 be done except by the aid of those works 

 which are written to teach it. Let all aid, 

 then, to spread them broadcast throughout 

 the land. It is the duty of every good citi- 

 zen to do this — nothing equal to it can be 

 done to benefit the country. 



All editors inserting the above, and for- 

 warding the paper containing it to the pub- 

 lisher, will be entitled to the Agriculturist 

 the current year, without further charge. — 

 American Agriculturist. 



Geography and History of the Quince. 



The quince is supposed to have been ori- 

 ginally a native of Sidon, a city of ancient 

 Crete, now the island of Candia; but it is 

 much more probable that it was only first 

 brought into notice in that city. It is consi- 

 dered, at present, as indigenous to the south 

 • of France, particularly on the borders of the 

 'Garonne, and to Germany, on the banks of 

 the Danube. By some, the tree is thought 

 to be indigenous to Britain; and Phillips 

 states, in his "Pomarium Britannicum," that 

 quinces grow in such abundance in some 

 parts of the Wealds of Sussex, as to enable 

 private families to make quince wine in 

 quantities of one hundred to two hundred 

 gallons in a season." 



The quince was known to the Greeks and 

 'Romans, and both nations held it in high es- 

 timation. Columella says, "Quinces not 

 only yield pleasure, but health." He speaks 

 of three kinds — the "Struthian," the "Must 

 Quince," and the "Orange Quince." Pliny 

 mentions many kinds, some growing wild in 

 Italy, and others in cultivatfon, so large that 



they weighed the boughs, on which they 

 grew, down to the ground. He also says 

 that some were of a green, and others of a 

 golden colour, the latter of which were 

 called chrysomela. The only kind that was 

 eaten raw, he states to have been raised by 

 grafting the large quince upon the stock of 

 a small variety, called struthla. " All kinds 

 of this fruit," continues he, "are grown in 

 boxes, and placed within the waiting-cham- 

 bers of our great personages, in which men 

 wait to salute these personages as they come 

 forth, every morning." It appears from the 

 same author, that quinces were used to de- 

 corate the images of the gods, which were 

 placed in sleeping-chambers round the beds; 

 whence it follows, that the Romans did not 

 think that there was anything either injuri- 

 ous or unpleasant in their smell. He gives 

 directions for preserving the fruit, by ex- 

 cluding the air from them, or boiling them 

 in honey; or by plunging them in boiling 

 honey, a practice in use with this, and other 

 fruits, in Genoa, at the present day. He 

 also writes much on the medicinal qualities 

 of this fruit. "Quinces," says he, "when 

 eaten raw, if quite ripe, are good for those 

 who spit blood, or are troubled with hemor- 

 rhage." The juice of raw quinces, he states 

 to be a sovereign remedy for the swollen 

 spleen, the dropsy, and difficulty of taking 

 breath, particularly to those who cannot con- 

 veniently breathe, except when in an upright 

 position. The flowers of the quince, either 

 fresh or dried, he tells us, are good for in- 

 flamed eyes. The root of the tree was used, 

 not only as a medicine, but as a charm against 

 scrofula. 



The date of the introduction of the quince 

 into Britain is unknown. Gerard mentions 

 it as growing in gardens and orchards, and 

 as being " planted often times in hedges and 

 fences belonging to gardens and vineyards;" 

 from which we may infer, that it was by no 

 means rare in his time; and, indeed, in all 

 probability, it has existed in England from 

 the time of the Romans. 



The largest recorded tree of this species 

 in Britain, is in Radnorshire, at Maeslough 

 Castle, which is twenty-one feet in height, 

 with a trunk ten inches in diameter, and an 

 ambitus or spread of branches of twenty-two 

 feet. 



The quince, like most of our orchard 

 fruits, was probably introduced into the 

 North American colonies at the early peri- 

 ods of their settlements. It is very gene- 

 rally cultivated for its fruit, and is usually 

 planted in clumps of bushes, rather than as 

 individual trees or shrubs. Of late, however, 

 orchards of it have been formed on the rich 



