4^4 GENERAL REVIEW. 



considerably in habit, and it is worth while to test these by 

 experiment, so as to discover which is best as a Pear stock. 

 Being different in habit, they might each suit particular varie- 

 ties better than others. The common Quince is generally used 

 in this country, while M. Jourdain prefers a French variety 

 named La Quintaine, and other fruit-growers prefer the Portu- 

 gal or the Angers' variety. 



As to the duration of Pears on the Quince stock a by no 

 means unimportant question Mr Rivers says : "I have so 

 often heard from market-gardeners and others the sentence, 

 ' It is of no use to plant Pears on Quince stocks, for they will 

 not live long,' that whenever I have seen Pear-trees of a mature 

 age, I have looked to the stock to ascertain its nature, and 

 whether it was Pear or Quince or White-thorn, for I know of 

 some healthy free-bearing Pears grafted on the latter. In the 

 kitchen-garden of the Deepdene, near Dorking, I observed a 

 number of fine pyramidal Pear-trees. These I soon found to 

 be worked on the Quince, and the gardener there informed me 

 that they had been planted about thirty-four years. They are 

 very healthy, and are growing in a soil of the driest and lightest 

 description, being nearly pure sand. The trees were imported 

 from France. Now, presuming their age to have been three 

 years (the usual age) when planted, they are now nearly forty 

 years old, and most certainly appear as if they would live and 

 grow and bear fruit for twenty years to come. A light porous 

 soil resting on a cool subsoil is, I have reason to believe, the 

 most favourable for Pears on the Quince stock ; so that, if the 

 soil of a garden in which they are to be planted be heavy and 

 stiff, they should be planted in a light compost, or Pears grafted 

 on the Pear stock only should be grown to prevent disappoint- 

 ment." For a list of the Pears which succeed on the Quince 

 stock, see the 'Garden,' 1873, P- 35 2 > 353- 



Mr Rivers, who was one of the first to introduce the cul- 

 ture of the Pear on the Quince stock recommends " double- 

 grafting" in the case of such varieties as the Jargonelle, 

 Marie Louise, and others, which are apt to overrule the 

 Quince stock when budded or grafted upon it directly. All 

 cultivators know how difficult it is to make some varieties of 

 the Pear succeed on the Quince. M. Carriere has lately 

 pointed out an easy road to success in this matter namely, 

 always to operate by cleft-grafting instead of by budding. By 

 this means, in the case of those varieties which exhibit a reluc- 

 tance to unite with the stock, the disastrous effects of high 

 winds are avoided, and the union of the scion with the stock 

 is secured sooner and more permanently. The following 



