January, 1906 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



275 



bushes and see if they do not respond right 

 joyously. The way they will grow and bear 

 under careful tillage is a revelation to anyone 

 who is familiar only with the sod-sick bushes 

 in the back yard. Of course there are cases 

 where quinces should be left in sod, as when 

 the soil is very wet and when they are making 

 a very thrifty growth in spite of the sod. But 

 for the most part it will pay to till them. 

 Till quinces as you would plums or apples, 

 and for the same reasons. Remember, 

 however, that quinces are shallow-rooted, 

 and do not till them deeply. Plow shallow, 

 and do not use a deep-working cultivator. 



The fertilizing of quinces does not differ 

 from the fertilizing of the other trees in the 

 fruit garden. Good tillage will help wonder- 

 fully to keep the trees well fed. Supplement 

 this with occasional dressings of muriate of 

 potash and South Carolina rock or bone, or 

 other standard fertilizers rich in potash and 

 phosphoric acid. Old, unthrifty quinces, 

 especially those in sod, may be rejuvenated 

 with liberal dressings of barnyard manure. 

 The guide in fertilizing, in every case, should 

 be the condition of the trees and of the crop. 

 Stunted, sickly trees need a tonic. Nitrogen 

 is a plant tonic; it may be fed to best advan- 

 tage in the form of barnyard manure, if that 

 can be had; failing this, in a leguminous 

 cover crop, and in nitrate of soda, dried 

 blood, or other commercial fertilizers con- 

 taining this plant food. 



INSECTS AND DISEASES ATTACKING QUINCES 



It is to be expected that orchard enemies 

 will get a strong foothold on a fruit that is 

 usually neglected. Years ago, when apples 

 were neglected nearly as much as quinces are 

 now, they, too, were over-run with pests. 

 The average quince tree is a sorry sight. The 

 leaves are riddled with blight. The fruit 

 is disfigured by rust, blight, curculio and 

 codling moth. Often it is nearly defoliated 

 by midsummer, leaving the half-ripe fruits 

 hanging on naked branches. Most of these 

 difficulties can be overcome. 



The fire blight, which is the same disease 

 as sometimes works such havoc with pears, 

 is perhaps the most serious of these troubles. 

 It comes on at any time during the season, 

 killing spurs, shoots, branches, and even the 

 entire tree, within a few days or weeks. The 

 bark shrivels, the leaves turn a dead brown 

 all over and do not fall, thus distinguishing 

 if from leaf blight, in which the leaves be- 

 come spotted and eventually turn yellow 

 and drop. The treatment is to cut out the 

 blighted parts as soon as they are seen. 

 Make the cut several inches below the lowest 

 point to which the blight has spread. Do 

 this work faithfully and you may control the 

 blight, but in some seasons it is seemingly 

 uncontrollable. See Country Life in America 

 for May, 1905, for further suggestions. 



Leaf blight is the disease that makes black 

 spots on the leaves, and often defoliates the 

 trees in August and early September. A 

 healthy tree should hold its foliage till after 

 the fruit is harvested. On the fruit it causes 

 black spots which may run together and 

 make a rotten place. Since it injures the 

 leaves, the disease weakens the tree so that 



Quinces attacked by rust. This disease breeds 

 on cedar trees, which should not be allowed to grow 

 near apples or quinces 



it makes a poor growth and cannot carry out 

 a satisfactory crop. Happily for us the 

 disease yields very readily to treatment with 

 Bordeaux mixture. Spray the trees after 

 the blossoms have dropped and once or 

 twice later, at intervals of from seven to four- 

 teen days, depending on the weather. This 

 very common disease, which is ruinous to 

 quinces everywhere, can be so readily and 

 cheaply controlled by spraying that the home 

 grower cannot be excused for harboring it. 



Quince rust is sometimes serious, but not 

 nearly as much so as leaf blight. It blotches 

 the fruit and sometimes covers it with a 



fuzzy yellow growth. Spraying for leaf 

 blight keeps it in check. Cut down all cedars 

 near quinces or apples; this disease spends a 

 part of its life in cedars. 



The borer is more of a nuisance than mos* 

 people imagine, because it does its work ou 

 of sight. Many a fine quince tree has sud 

 denly sickened and died from the worm at 

 its root, while the owner blamed the soil, the 

 weather, and everything but himself. The 

 only reliable way is to get down on hands 

 and knees and dig them out with knife and 

 wire. Vile-smelling washes are often recom- 

 mended, but do not keep out all the borers. 

 Go over the quince trees for borers when you 

 hunt for them in apples and peaches — 

 especially in May and September, but also 

 at any other time of the year. 



Two other insects, the curculio and the 

 codling moth, sometimes reduce the quince 

 crop. The former punctures the fruit, 

 making it knotty. It is best handled by 

 jarring the limbs every day or two for two or 

 three weeks after blossoming, and catching 

 the curculios on sheets, as is practised with 

 plums. This is a tedious process, but it 

 gives the results desired. The codling moth 

 gets into quinces in the same way and pro- 

 duces the same result as it does in apples, 

 but does less damage to quinces than to apples. 

 Put one-half pound of paris green in the 

 barrel of Bordeaux that is used on the quinces 

 for blight immediately after the fruits have 

 set, and this difficulty is met successfully. 

 Paris green also helps to control the curculio, 

 although I have met but one man who has 

 been able to get rid of curculio with arsenites. 



How most quince bushes look in late August and early September. Defoliated by leaf blight, the fruit blotched 

 and Knurly. This bush is having a struggle for life with burdocK and rubbish back of the woodshed 



