400 Remarks on Dicarfing Fruit Trees, 



grafted on the quince ; the nurseryman therefore naturally 

 prefers the pear stock, for the plants appear much superior to 

 the eye of those who do not fully understand the matter. 

 Indeed, if the nurseryman must be compelled to work on 

 the quince, it is but fair that he should be permitted to 

 charge nearly double the price for them, for not only would 

 they require nearly double the time to make established 

 plants, but in many cases he would have to apply peculiar 

 dressings to his soil, to fit it for their culture. 



In my opinion it is vain to plant pears on such stocks, in 

 soils not adapted for the quince itself; those who are using 

 pear or quince stocks, therefore, should consider the natural 

 habits of the quince. 



One of the most essential points, as far as my experience 

 of the quince reaches, is to secure a permanency of moisture 

 in the soil ; without this the trees may grow, but the fruit 

 will be liable to become mealy and insipid. Indeed similar 

 eifects are known to follow with the pear on the free stock. 

 I have known them crack or rift almost, in pieces, through 

 the effect of drought, on sandy or weak soils. The quince, 

 moreover, can hardly be too highly cultivated ; and be the 

 soil of a garden what it may, the ground can soon be ren- 

 dered suitable, providing the platform mode of planting be 

 adopted. As to providing a soil permanently moist, I sup- 

 pose we must use a liberal amount of a tenacious loam in 

 the soil, the other portion should be of very sandy old vege- 

 table soil ; such as equal parts of very old cow-manure, leaf- 

 mould, old spent tan, and boggy soil, adding some fine sand. 

 By this mode of procedure, I have been enabled to grow 

 the pear on the quince in the very highest degree of perfec- 

 tion at Oulton Park, whereas the ordinary soil is by no 

 means suitable. 



Here again, in order to secure a regular moisture, mulch- 

 ing should be had recourse to ; the quince moreover makes 

 abundance of surface fibres, and these revel beneath a coat- 

 ing of rotting surface manure. 



The remarks here offered concerning the quince apply in 

 a considerable degree to the Paradise stock for apples. The 



