VOL. XLVII. NO. 2006. NEW YORK, JULY 7, 1888. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1888, by the Rural New-Yorker In the ofllce of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
0TO0 logical. 
QUINCE CULTURE. 
Quince growing simple and sure ; but cultiva¬ 
tion and especially pruning are important; 
as the quince has many roots near the sur¬ 
face , only shallow cultivation should be 
given ; mulching ; effects of good care and 
pruning illustrated ; great fruitfulness of 
the quince ; with judicious treatment , old 
varieties are better than new. 
The culture of the quince has attracted 
much attention of late, and as it is a matter 
of general interest to all fruit-growers, 
whether professional or 
amateur, it may not be 
amiss to give readers of 
the Rural my experience, 
practice and results. 
The growing of the 
quince is so simple and 
sure that any one having 
only a city back-yard can 
successfully compete, in a 
limited way, with the best 
and largest orchardist, and 
raise the iinest of fruit for 
his own use. It was for¬ 
merly thought that the 
quince required no special 
care, either in planting, 
cultivation or pruning, so 
it was allowed to grow at 
random, throwing up nu¬ 
merous shoots or suckers, 
receiving no pruning, save 
an occasional thinning out 
of the branches and no 
care save digging up the 
ground about the roots, 
and deluging it with slops 
from the kitchen: result, a 
stunted,dwarfed,ill-shaped 
tree, with a few small, 
knotty, wormy quinces, 
hardly fit to be cooked; 
and if by chance a good 
specimen was hero and 
there found it was indeed 
a prize. Now the prize 
can be the rule, the knotty 
ones the exception. 
It is the nature of the 
quince to throw out im¬ 
mense numbers of fine 
roots, and as these are in¬ 
clined to grow near the surface and are of 
great importance to the quality and fruitful¬ 
ness of the tree, they should be encouraged 
and protected; hence my practice is never to 
allow the ground about the tree within the 
radius of its branches, to be disturbed, except 
to keep down the weeds, and then only as 
shallow a cultivation as possible should be 
given, not over an inch deep, using a push-hoe 
or the back of a rake. To protect the roots in 
winter, cover the ground late in the fall, or 
early in winter with a dressing of barn-yard 
manure, and in the early summer mulch the 
ground with salt hay or other coarse material. 
This is important, as on keeping the fine roots 
cool and moist depends one’s success. This is 
all the cultivation that my trees have had in 
14 years. 
Now, in regard to pruniug: my practice is 
almost directly opposite to all published direc¬ 
tions. It is generally said that the quince re¬ 
quires very little pruning. One eminent 
writer says, “an occasional thinning out of 
crowded or decayed branches is quite suffi¬ 
cient.” In practice I find this not true. The 
quince being generally deficient in foliage, an 
foliage being necessary to perfect the fruit as 
well as to protect the trunk and branches 
from the hot summer sun, should be encour¬ 
aged, hence I do not thin out at all; but to in¬ 
duce fruitfulness I prune or head in, in the early 
spring, all over the tree, the new or previous 
year’s growth to four or five buds. This gives 
me, almost invariably, three or four fine, fair 
quinces on eac1| shoot, and the entire outer 
surface of the tree will be literally covered with 
fruit of good size and quality, and I generally 
cut off from two to four feet of wood every 
spring frcm each shoot. My trees are now lf> 
years old, and have been in bearing 13 years, 
giving excellent crops every year. 
As an evidence of what culture and pruning 
will do, I refer Rural readers to the acoom- 
protected from the borer. To give an idea of 
the fruitfulness of these trees, I will merely 
say that I have annually picked for several 
years from each tree 400 to 450 quinces. Last 
year my trees averaged 475 each, and this is 
what all may do by pruning and cultivation, 
as can bo instanced by the practice of many 
of my neighbors. Why pay enormous prices 
for so-called new quinces, when by judicious 
treatment of old varieties one can excel even 
the boasted claims of these novelties. 
Essex Co., N. J. chas. l. .tones. 
The Champion Quince, which wo have found 
too late for this climate, seems to be highly 
prized in certain parts of the South. It is a 
very prolific variety everywhere. 
GROUP OF QUINCES. One-fourth Natural Size. Fig. 240. 
panying sketchos of one of my trees (taken 
from aphotograph) and of the tree after it was 
pruned this spring. 
Figure 240 shows a small branch from one 
side of the tree bearing 18 quinces that aver¬ 
aged 12 ounces each. The drawing is one- 
fourth of the natural size. Fig. 24L, page 447, 
is a branch from the other side of the same 
tree. The foliage has been picked off in order 
to show the fruit, and the weight of the fruit 
is bringing the branches nearly to the ground. 
The uniform size and beauty of the fruit can 
be plainly seen. This drawing is one-fifth 
of the natural size. In many cases my quinces 
have weighed 17 ounces, and 55 have often 
filled a bushel. 
Fig. 242, page 445, shows the same tree after 
being pruned this spring, from 18 inches to 
three feet of last year’s growth having been 
cut off, and at this time (June 22) the trees are 
literally loaded with fruit, and the new growth 
is from 12 to 20 inches long. 
By pruning low and keeping the branches 
well down, the ground is shaded, which is a 
very important point, the tree being great 
THOUGHTS AT THE RURAL GROUNDS. 
Harmony of color and sound ; beauty and 
utility ; recent addition to the Rural 
Grounds ; great variety of soil and mois¬ 
ture; the rye-wheat hybrids ; cross bred 
wheats; the “prize" potato patch; reflec¬ 
tions. 
It occurred to me at the Rural Grounds 
that harmony of color is no less delight¬ 
ful than harmony of sound. The everchang- 
ing, but always harmonious coloring of the 
trees and shrubs is as agreeable to the eye as 
the finest symphony is to the ear. All the 
instruments of the orchestra are represented, 
ranging from the heavy bass of the large, dark 
spruces, to the higher notes of the Purple 
Beech, the vines and the flowers. If there is 
a handsomer conifer than the Blue Spruce, I 
have never seen it. It attracts more atten¬ 
tion than any other evergreen about the 
grounds. 
It seems a shame to cover up the beautiful 
roses with little paper bags. It is the old 
story—beauty must be sacrificed for science 
and utility. Hybridizing requires an im¬ 
mense amount of patience and skill, and it 
should be well rewarded when it is done suc¬ 
cessfully. 
On the diversified farm recently added to the 
“ Rural Grounds ” are many of the deciduous 
trees indigenous to the Eastern States. These 
are growing naturally. On the same grounds 
are a goodly number of conifers which were 
set out years ago. It is one of the best of places 
to study forestry and for observing the value 
and growth of trees. 
An excellent feature of 
the "grounds is the great 
variety of soil, ranging 
from a heavy clay to a 
light sand. There are 
places so wet that they 
must be drained, and 
others so dry, that they 
should be irrigated. 
Whatever may be the 
outcome of the experiments 
in hybridizing wheat and 
i ye, they are teaching the 
experimenter a lesson in 
patience. Just think of 
spending two hours or 
more over a single head of 
wheat or ryel Such care¬ 
ful, painstaking experi¬ 
ments are never conducted 
in vain; there will be some 
important results, but just 
what they will be time 
alone can determine. To 
the imaginative observer 
this little spot of wheat-rye 
hybrid plants contains a 
world of possibilities. 
Think of a plant that shall 
combine the strength and 
sturdiness of growth of the 
rye plant with the milling 
qualties of wheat! Is such 
a plant here? Possibly. 
The x-esult of hybridizing 
wheat and rye may be in 
doubt, but the results of 
carefully selecting and 
cross-breeding wheat are 
certain. He who makes 
two blades of grass grow 
where only one grew be¬ 
fore does Iess]thau he who produces five kernels 
of wheat whore only three grew before. This 
is what is being done at the Rural Grounds. 
It seems very odd that a patch of potatoes 
should attract so much attention. The Ru¬ 
ral’s prize patch looks very like any other 
patch of potatoes except that the leaves are 
larger and the vines stronger. It is safe to 
say that nothing olse in the agricultural world 
is attracting anything like the attention be¬ 
stowed upon this particular patch of tubers. 
Should it produce at the rate of 700 bushels 
per acre it will become world-renowned. 
The effort to convert a primitive forest 
into a park by setting out plants and shrubs 
which thrive in the shade ought to be 
a success. I have in mind a typical case where 
the treos of natural growth were dug up to 
make room for fruit and ornamental trees, 
which were, alas! destined to be “cut down in 
the spring time of their blossoming.” It will 
take years to get the shade and beauty of the 
natural growth. This suggests the question as 
to whether it is possible to get a good catch of 
rass under oak or other deciduous trees. I 
avo never seen it done permanently. 
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