114: THE NURSERY. 



taking a crop every two years. This is the system recom- 

 mended to those who wantjirst rate quince stocks. 



The very general lack of information in this country on 

 the subject of quince stocks for pears has given rise to a 

 great many misapj^rehensions and erroneous statements in 

 regard to them, both by horticultural writers and others. 

 At first it was said that the stock used by the French and 

 imported by nurserymen here were the Portugal. Again, 

 it was discovered they were nothing more than the com- 

 mon apple quince ; consequently a multitude of the apple 

 quinces have been worked, and sent out as " dwarf pears. "^"^ 

 The slow and feeble growth of this variety unfits it entirely 

 for a stock for the pear, and only a very few varieties will 

 form a union with it that will last over three or four years. 

 Such trees cannot fail to give general dissatisfaction, and 

 among people who know no better, create a prejudice 

 against quince stocks in general. Indeed this is the cause 

 why so much has been said about the pears on quince 

 beins: so short-lived. 



The truth is, that the varieties used in France are nei- 

 ther the Apple nor the Portugal Quince, but vigorous 

 hybrids that have been originated there, and found to 

 answer this purpose particularly well. The great requisite 

 of a quince stock for the pear is 2^. free^vigoroiis and rajpid 

 groiuth. A variety originated at the town of Angers in 

 France, and extensively used, propagated and sold there, 

 as the Angers Quince^ is probably the best yet known for 

 a pear stock generally. It is a very rapid, vigorous grower, 

 making strong shoots three feet long in one season. It has 

 large foliage resembling the Portugal. In some parts of 

 France, as in Normandy, it is known as the hroad-leaved. 

 There is another variety with smaller leaves, but of free, 

 vigorous growth too, almost exclusively cultivated in some 

 districts. Several extensive nurserymen at Orleans, Paris, 

 and elsewhere, consider it superior to the broad-leaved, 



