SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
379 
states himself, badly managed and neglected in former 
years, bring him such handsome profits as nearly a thou- 
sand dollars a year 1 With his permission, this resembles 
much abusing your cow for the milk she gives. 
Before writing his article, I wish that learned gentleman 
had taken the trouble to ascertain, 1st. Wheilier all his 
quince-grafted trees were on tlie same stock, the Angers 
or Orleans, the only ones now in use in our nurseries ; 
2nd. Whether all were planted according to the rule pre- 
vailing in Europe, so as to have the bud from two to four 
inches below tlie level surface of the soil ; 3rd. Whether j 
all were pruned in the same way, and planted with the 
same care. 
To the first question he gives the reply, by stating that 
the two diiTerent lots were obtained from two difterent j 
nurseries. Can we not surmise that the unsuccessful } 
trees were on the iwit- indigenous quince, and the thriving j 
trees on ibe improved or Angers 1 
But to the main point. If the Cydonia or quince is un- 
fitted for our climate, because allthe way from Japan, v;hy | 
do quinces, as trees, succeed so perfectly well that I could 
name persons all around here, and no doubt, Mr. Editor, 
you could do the same in your vicinity, who yearly reap 
handsome profits from their Japanese friends '? I know a j 
gentleman in Connecticut who has five quince trees in a | 
small garden, and who clears almost every year, besides j 
the supply of his family, from $12 to $18. What native 
would pay better I 
Certainly indigenous trees are more hardy in general, 
although we see the button-ball dying out, and actually the 
hickories on our mountains showing signs of decay. But 
imported or naturalized trees are not less hardy. The 
cherry, tlie peach, the apricot, have been iviported by 
Lucullus, from Persia, on the sf aff(1) of his banners. The 
lilac, the Paulonia, the ailanthus, the Norway spruce, and 
some hundreds of exotic trees or shrubs, are now the or- 
nam.ents of our gardens, squares and cemeteries. The 
pear tree itself is not a native of this continent, and has 
been imported, as the quince, from climates where mois- 
ture prevails, and atmospheric conditions are different. I 
have no leisure to consult Michaux or others, but I doubt 
if the most useful tree in the world, the apple tree is not an 
exotic in our middle and Sothern States. We have the 
crab in northern latitudes, a good grafting stock, but per- 
haps diiTerent from the European standard. Take away 
what is iviported from climates and countries widely dif- 
ferent from our climate and soil, and you rob us of many 
of those fine trees and shrubs' which adorn our private and 
public grounds. 
The argument brought against that poor abused quince 
so useful and paying so handsomely, would have been 
taken back, 1 believe, by its author, if he had considered 
not only the fitness of foreign plants to adapt themselves 
to our climatic conditions, but the hardiness of the quince 
tree itself. In those very moist climates as Belgium and 
northern France, they were all frozen in 1838; 10 or 15° 
below zero, v/hich rarely occurs there, kills every quince 
in Belgium. That same low temperature seems to have 
no influence here, for after the last terrible winter, quinces 
look well and bear profusely. Indeed, few foreign trees 
are doing better in New Jersey, and said gentleman can 
see from his grounds lots of over half secular quince trees 
yielding every year handsome profits. So much for the 
arcclimation of the poor Cydonia. 
I 
i 
I 
I 
Let tile quince stock be abused, we shall do as the phi- 
losopher of Greece ; v/hen Pythagoras denied motion Zeno 
went ivalking. Let the quince be slandered, it will re- 
main one of our best friends. Your profits in fruit raising 
are mostly derived from quince stock. The best fruits of 
your splendid exhibitions are Irom the quince stock. Mr. 
M. P. Wilders best trees and best fruits are on the quince 
slock-, so are Messrs. Ch. Downing’s, Ellwanger & Barry’s, 
Dr. Grant’s, Mr. Reid's and my own. 
Let gentlemen botanists have their own way in statin'' 
contradictory experiments, based upon improper or bad 
management, di awing from these unsatisfactory conclu- 
sions. “On vve shall go and, by a judicious selection of 
varieties and proper cultivation ( for it is folly to expect 
luscious fruits from neglected trees) we shall fill our 
shelves and walk among our well shaped, healthy pyra- 
mids with a blessing for the unknown genius who first tried 
the Quince as a stock for the Pear, and made, really, in 
the pear cultivation, the same revolution as steam has 
done for travelling. 
Thus fill- a very capable and experienced correspond- 
ent, to which Mr. Hovey adds : 
A more satisfiictory answer to the tirade of nonsense 
which is going the rounds of the papers in reference to 
the cultivation of “dwarf pears,” viz.; the pear upon the 
quince, could not well be given. It is to the point, and 
coming as it does from one who'is amply able, after many 
years of observation in France and Belgium, where the 
pear has so long been cultivated, as well as in our own 
country, to give an opinion, will have the influence to 
which its sound common sense duly entities it. 
It is one of the most serious drawbacks to all progress 
in horticultural art, especially in our country, that so 
much empiricism is mixed up with a thorough scientific 
knowledge of cultivation ; that those who do not know 
the first principles of a science should attempt to teach 
those who have made it a life-long study. It is from this fact 
that such contradictory statements are constantly made, 
which mystify the new beginner, lead him astray, and 
force him to rely on his own experience, often dearly 
bought, and always with great loss of time. With so 
much apparent information before him, and without the 
necessary knowledge to enable him to decide where the 
truth lies, he adopts first one course of culture and then 
another, until at last, if his zeal holds out, he finds, at his 
cost, that he has been Ibllowing the visionary notions of 
some fancy theorist, rather than the true principles of hor- 
ticultural science. 
This attempt to write down the quince stock is a sample 
of a thousand similar attempts in the literature of garden- 
ing to assail some of the soundest principles of physiolo- 
gical science, and practical art ; and it will end, as all 
similar attempts have, in more thoroughly convincino- 
those who resort to the proper sources of information how 
egregiously they have been deceived in following the no- 
tions of those who write well enough, or criticize wonder- 
fully wise, but whose practice is as barren as some of the 
ideas which they attempt to advance. 
It is not really, at this late day, worth while to waste 
time and paper to attempt to controvert such statements 
as our correspondent briefly review.? in his excellent ar- 
ticle; at least we have not thought so. Tliose who can 
be induced to believe them must know but very little of 
the experience of the past, or be sadly deficient in that 
knowledge which every one must possess to become a suc- 
cessful cultivator. 
We are ready to admit that the quince has been brought 
into unjust repute by the practice of some inexperienced 
nurserymen, who reco.mmend many varieties which vnll 
not succeed upon that stock ; but this is the exception to 
the rule, and is acknowledged by all wdio fully appreciate 
its usefulness. 
In conclusion we need only refer to an article in a pre- 
vious volume (XVII., p. 365,) upon the culiivation of the 
Pear upon the Quince stock, in which our views are fully 
expressed and satisfactory evidence adduced to show its 
very great value in the culture of this delicious fruit. Sub- 
.sequent experience has more fully confirmed the opinions 
recorded in the volume referred to. — Mouazine of Horti- 
culture for Novernher^ 185C. 
