270 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



been written. Monsieur De la Quintinye (1693) asserts that " Pear 

 Tree Graffs upon Quince Stocks love rather fat than dry soils . . . 

 and Pear Tree Graffs upon Frank or good Kernel Stocks, prospering 

 both well in sandy grounds." This seems the general impression 

 amongst the old writers, and they might be somewhat surprised 

 to-day to see the ' Conference,' ' Fertility,' and ' Dr. Jules Guyot ' Pears 

 worked on Quince prospering on many of our lighter loams in Kent. 



Monsieur De la Quintinye, however, goes further ; and he 

 more or less divides pears into those " which are to be graffed 

 on Free Stocks and which on Quince Stocks " ; he gives definite 

 reasons for his selections as in the case of ' Winter Bon Chretien ' 

 which "graffed upon a Free Stock will produce greener fruit than 

 that which is graffed upon a Quince Stock." Moreover, " this Bon- 

 cretien tree should first be graffed upon a Quince Stock, chiefly 

 because the Boncretien Dwarfs graffed on Free Stocks commonly 

 bring fruit spotted, small, crumpled, etc., and consequently disagree- 

 able to the sight." 



The Quince and Free Stocks " shew themselves by the different 

 colours with which they tinge their fruit." 



It is a common thing, too, to find the effect upon the texture, 

 flavour, and keeping quality of the fruit referred to. 



Thomas Hitt (1757), who devotes no fewer than seven chapters 

 to " Stocks proper for " various fruits, says with reference to Quince 

 Stocks that " Suitable kinds may be propagated upon them, by 

 examining the catalogue of pears and their qualities, and chusing 

 such as are of the melting sort ; for those of the breaking sort are 

 apt to become stoney, especially in a dry summer ; therefore these 

 last sorts ought to be upon free stocks such as are raised from the 

 Kernels of good melting pears, gathered from trees that are healthy." 

 Miller repeats this assertion about the grittiness of breaking Pears 

 on Quince. Switzer (1724), too, refers to the effect on texture and 

 flavour, while De la Quintinye gives a concrete example of the 

 latter where the defect of the " lemonish " taste in the ' St. Germain ' 

 Pear is augmented by Quince Stock. 



There also seemed a general consensus of opinion that the 

 winter or keeping Pears had better keeping qualities off trees on 

 free stocks. 



These writers were also aware that certain varieties of Pear 

 " did not do " on Quince, whilst others did better on free stocks. 

 Noisette in his " Le Jardin Fruitier " (1821), also refers to the 

 fact that, around Vitry, Pear Stock was a failure and Quince Stock 

 was invariably used. Whilst we should be ready to accept as true 

 these latter facts, we hesitate to assert the value of many of the 

 other observations made by these early pomologists. Now that we 

 have isolated definite types of Quince and Pear Stocks, it will be 

 possible to conduct more satisfactory trials, and to prove or disprove 

 their maxims. 



