QUINCES. 477 



The last variety is of a fine purple colour when 

 dressed ; is more juicy and less harsh, and much better 

 for marmalade, than either of the others. It is the only 

 sort now cultivated in England for domestic purposes, 



Propagation. 



The Quince is propagated by layers at any time 

 during the winter months. When the young shoots are 

 laid down, there should not be more than two eyes left 

 above ground, and when those have grown five or six 

 inches long, one of them should be cut clean off, leaving 

 the other to form the plant, which by the autumn will 

 be three feet high. 



The layers must be taken off the stools as soon as the 

 leaves are fallen, and planted out in rows at three feet 

 apart from row to row, and ten or twelve inches from 

 plant to plant in the row. At the end of one or two 

 years they will be fit to bud or graft with the different 

 sorts of Pear, for quenouille or for espalier training ; or 

 they may be allowed to grow up and form standards for 

 orchard planting. 



Those, however, which are intended for budding or 

 grafting, should be shortened to eighteen inches, as soon 

 as quartered out in the rows, which will keep them up- 

 right, firm, and steady; but those intended for stand- 

 ards should be staked and tied up as soon as planted, 

 and at the end of three years they ought to be fit to be 

 planted out where they are intended to remain. 



Cultivation. 



The Quince is cultivated in no other way in this 

 country than as an open standard. Its management is 

 the same as that of the Plum. 



The Quince may very safely be planted out in the 

 orchard, without any fear of its degenerating either the 



