September, 1858. 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
973 
also sheltered from harsh north and west winds. 
Or a bed shielded by evergreens on all sides will 
do well. The shade of deciduous trees is not 
sufficient, because it is so meager in Winter. A 
bed in our own grounds, so prepared and shelter¬ 
ed by evergreens, has succeeded the past year, as 
well as could have been desired. Our little col¬ 
lection of laurels and rhododendrons is helped out 
by a few azaleas, mahonias, boxwood, prinos gla¬ 
bra (Inkberry), &c. 
Raising Chestnuts. 
When ornament and utility combine in a shade- 
tree, it deserves universal recommendation. 
This is the case with the chestnut. Its fruit is 
desirable, its timber is valuable, and its form 
and foliage are pleasing to the eye. The tree is 
also of rapid growth. 
Many persons, however, fail in their attempts 
to germinate the seed. Their failure is owing, 
doubtless, to their allowing the nuts to become 
dry before planting. A few days’ exposure to 
the sun and air, is sufficient to shrivel the 
germ beyond recovery. The only sure way of 
growing them, is to plant them as soon as they 
are gathered from the tree, or at least to cover 
them with moist sand until the ground is pre¬ 
pared for planting. In planting, cover them an 
inch and a-half deep, if the soil is heavy; or 
two inches if it is sandy. Some recommend to 
follow nature a little more closely, and to bury 
the seed only about an inch, and then to spread 
over the surface a coat of rotten leaves, to keep 
the ground moist and soft. 
Degeneration in Cultivated Plants- 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
It is a well-known fact that some varieties of 
seeds, when raised for a long time upon the same 
soil, fail in their productive properties, or as the 
farmer says, “ have run out,” and need changing. 
Hence the recommendation frequently given, to ob¬ 
tain new seed from a distance. Let us examine 
the theory for a moment. 
Plants, in regard to their procreative qualities, 
are of two kinds, one containing generative vir¬ 
tues within itself, and the other requiring to be 
fertilized or impregnated with a substance from 
another plant of its kind. It is easily shown that 
a plant of the latter class, when grown by itself, 
or guarded against any connection with another 
of its species, loses its reproducing powers. 
The analogy between the vegetable and ani¬ 
mal kingdom is here sought to be established, 
where a violation of the laws of physiology, or of 
Nature, is as ruinous to one as to the other. Every 
man engaged in stock raising knows the ill effects 
of breeding in, and I think every one interested 
in vegetable culture should equally guard against 
violating the same law's. By constantly sowing 
the same seed we generate from kindred relations, 
which it is but natural to suppose will tend to de¬ 
generacy. I think the proper plan is to procure a 
portion of the seed from abroad, and mix with 
the home growm, or better still, procure it from 
two distant and opposite localities, mixing before 
It is sown, or planted. D. M. N. 
Caledonia, N. Y. 
-—•--n<»—--- 
Somebody says: He who marries for beauty 
omy, is like a buyer of cheap furniture—the var¬ 
nish that caught the eye w'ill not endure the fire- 
■ide bla7* 
The Orchard — IX. 
THE QUINCE. 
This is a valuable and much esteemed fruit 
throughout all the United States. Like the pear, 
however, it is capricious in its choice of soils, 
climate, and position. In places suitable to its 
habits and growth, it thrives, and yields its fruit 
in regularity and profusion. In places unsuitable, 
it is refractory, and, if growing at all, is short lived 
at the best, and yields, fitfully, but imperfect and 
inferior fruit. Much, however, in this last respect, 
may depend on cultivation, and deficiencies of soil, 
climate, and position, and may be partially over¬ 
come by extraordinary care, in which no specific 
directions can always be given, but only thor¬ 
oughly ascertained by the cultivator through a 
course of experimental treatment to a successful 
result. 
SOIL CLIMATE AND POSITION. 
A warm, rich, deep, gravelly loam, or a heavy, 
rich, clayey loam, resting on a dry bottom, are, 
perhaps, equally congenial to the perfect growth 
of the wood, and the perfection of its fruit — in 
either case, the soil having a good drainage. 
The best cultivation should be given by keeping 
the earth free, mellow, and rich with ordinary 
manures, and occasional lime, ashes, salt, and 
bone earth, when such elements are absent in the 
natural soil. 
As to climate, probably 40° North to 43°, is its 
favorite locality in the United States, although 
various localities, both north and south of the 
degrees named may be found quite as conge¬ 
nial. 
In position, the quince delights in a warm, 
sheltered spot. It loves the sunny nook of a 
garden, or a place near the kitchen door where it 
can receive a portion of the wash of the house, 
or a sunny declivity passing off from the barn¬ 
yard. We have known wonderful trees, both in 
growth and bearing, so situated, showing, that 
although it may flourish in the open orchard, it 
loves to nestle in a rich corner, and puts forth its 
greatest feats of production in the most favored 
localities. It delights in the bank of a small, 
quiet stream, high above its floods, dry shod, yet 
attainable of moisture when needed. Still it is 
not imperative in its demands of all these. It 
will thrive, when it thrives at all, in any ordinary 
soil, and on any good fruit site, with fair c-ultiva- 
tion. Its root is closely fibrous, as its top is 
compact, and therefore it draws heavily on the 
nutritious quality of the soil around it, requiring 
frequent applications of manure, and occasional 
trimming, or thinning of its top. Its natural 
growth is shrubby, or that of pushing several 
branches from near the ground, which can only 
be counteracte.d by close pruning in giving it but 
a single stem — the best form, on the whole — 
but with a low head, not reaching more than 
twelve or fifteen feet in height to its topmost 
branches. 
PLANTING. 
Sixteen to twenty feet apart, according to soil 
and position is the proper distance at which to set 
them in the orchard, or, if in a single row they 
may be twelve feet distant only. In any case, sep¬ 
arate trees should never intermingle their branches 
as they requise abundance of sun and air to devel¬ 
op their wood and fruit. Large holes, well mixed 
earth, thorough planting, and good cultivation, as 
in other choice fruits, are the only treatment under 
which a profitable quince tree, or orchard can be 
obtained ; and with these, and a genial locality, 
under otherwise favorable circumstances, the 
culture of the quince can usually be successful. 
VARIETIES. 
Although several different varieties are named 
in the nursery catalogues, the orange, or apple is 
the only one which we can recommend for a sure 
crop, and a profitable yield. It is, too, the best 
for preserves, and marmalades, the chief uses to 
which its fruit is devoted. There are larger, and 
perhaps more vigorous growths of wood in some 
varieties, as the Pear quince, Portugal, and 
Angers ; but the fruit is harsh and unflavored, 
compared with the orange, and we would not 
recommend them for household, and market 
purposes. The orange is, withal, a constant 
bearer, and reliable in all ordinary fruit seasons, 
and being the latest of all tree fruits to bloom in 
Spring, rarely fails in a crop. 
ITS DIFFICULTIES 
These arise chiefly from the borer — that pesti¬ 
lent, persevering insect which infests our apple 
trees. We have seen trees, which gave an 
annual yield for the past twenty years paying an 
interest on fifty dollars each, which in three years 
were cut down with the borer. Many people sup¬ 
pose, and so write it in the books and papers, 
that a wire, or knitting needle pushed in after it 
has commenced its ravages will kill it; or that 
cutting into its sinuous course beneath the bark, 
and into the vigorous sap wood just beneath 
where its ravages chiefly lie will do the business ; 
but an examination of its tortuous course after 
having entered through the bark will show that 
the wire often punches at nothing but unoccupied 
wood, and leaves the worm untouched, while the 
knife, in cutting after its prey, destroys nearly as 
much more, bark and wood, as the wretch itself 
has done in its work of destruction. 
In short, we have no sovereign specific for tms 
terrible pest, although very good suggestions are 
made in the July and August Agriculturist. We 
do not say the creature cannot be extirpated, but 
we have thus far been so unfortunate as to find 
no sure and infallible preventive of its ravages. 
Another formidable, but altogether different 
enemy, within the last three years, has been the 
absolute killing of the quince, body and branch, 
by the severity of the Winters, particularly those 
of 1855-'6, and 1856-’7 in northern latitudes. 
Thousands of the finest old trees, for many pre¬ 
vious years in full bearing, fell martyrs, apparently 
to the. severe frosts of those extraordinary Win¬ 
ters fhese, however, may be considered only 
as casualties, and should not deter our pomologists 
from their efforts at quince cultivation, and such 
severe action of the elements may not again 
occur in a lifetime. We have, however, witnessed 
a successful effort in quince culture, so successful 
in itself, that, without recommending it on so 
frail an experiment as the single trial which has 
come under our notice, we will proceed to men¬ 
tion it for what it may be worth, and recommend 
its trial by others who from defects in either soil, 
climate, locality, or the ravages of insects, may 
have been unsuccessful in their efforts. It is 
GRAFTING THE QUINCE ON THE NATIVE THORN. 
There is now living, and.in successful bearing, 
an orchard of some scores of quinces, which 
more than tlrrty years ago were grafted into the 
branches, three, four, or five feet above the ground, 
of native thorn trees growing on a piec f e o' 
rocky limestone soil, near the shores of Lake 
Erie. On Chose branches, young and vigorous, 
growing up wild and promiscuous as nature 
planted them, the grafts were inserted, and with¬ 
out any particular cultivation beyond what was 
given to the various grain and grass crops annu¬ 
ally taken from the land on which they stood, we 
