68 



AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



.Fig. 5. STOOL LAYERING THE 

 QUINCE. 



become firmly established, and may be set out by them- 

 selves, (fig. 4). There is, however, another method of lay- 

 ering, much practiced in the multiplication of the quince; 

 that called propagation by stools. The plants are set in 

 open rows, four feet wide, and three or four feet apart in 



the rows; they should be 

 so planted as to stand be- 

 low the general surface, 

 that is in trenches. When 

 cut off at the ground in 

 the spring, they throw up 

 a great number of shoots, 

 and the .earth is gradually 

 worked up to these to en- 

 courage their rooting, (see 

 figure 5), which is often, sufficient for removal the first 

 season ; if, on inspection, the roots are not found to be 

 sufficiently large or abundant, the earthing is 'continued 

 unti^the autumn of the next year, when they are remov- 

 ed, the stools trimmed of their lower roots, and reset in 

 new trenches. The plants, thus raised from stools, are cut 

 back severely, and are then ready to set out in nursery 

 rows for budding. With the quince, cultivated in this 

 manner, nothing is required but to accumulate the mel- 

 low earth about the shoots ; but in many plants it is 

 necessary to notch the wood by splitting, or cutting it for 

 an inch or two, (as in fig. 6), making a tongue that sepa- 

 rates from the lower portion of the shoot, and from which 

 the roots are emitted. This slit should be commenced just 

 below a bud, and the knife is drawn upward, cutting half- 

 way through the wood. If commenced at one side instead 



