AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[May, 
999 
£££j 
Quince Culture: Methods of Propagation. 
BY W. W. MEECH. 
The quiuce, like other fruit trees, may be multi¬ 
plied from seeds and from buds. As with other 
fruits, the tree produced from a seed will represent 
the species, i. e., will be a quince, but not the par¬ 
Fig'. 1.— LAYERING THE QUINCE. 
ticular variety. Its fruit may be of better quality 
than that of the parent tree which furnished the 
seed, but probably it will be inferior to it. If buds 
are employed for propagation, whether in the form 
of layers, cuttings, grafts, etc., the resulting tree 
will be of the same variety, and all the peculiarities 
of the parent tree, the size, color, quality, etc., of 
the fruit will be reproduced. 
Propagation Ity Seeds. 
Each tree raised from seeds, being a new indi¬ 
vidual, it may vary greatly from the parent plant. 
This method of multiplying the quince is only em¬ 
ployed for the purpose of obtaining new varieties. 
The “ Rea’s Seedling,” also called “Rea’s Mam¬ 
moth” and the “Champion,” are valuable addi¬ 
tions from the seed. The “New Upright” and 
“ Musk ” quinces are examples of but little merit, 
and not much cultivated. Seeds intended for 
planting must not be allowed to get thoroughly 
dry. When taken from the fruit in autumn, they 
sliould be planted two or three inches deep ; or be 
bedded in moist sand until spring, and then planted. 
I prefer fall planting. 
Propagation by Layers. 
Layering is done by bending a shoot or branch to 
the ground, and covering it with moist earth. It 
readily emits roots, being sustained by the parent 
tree during their formation. When rooted, it may 
be cut off to continue a separate growth. Partly 
cutting off a branch or splitting it up under a bud, 
facilitates its rooting. It is sometines necessary to 
fasten down the stiff branches with forked sticks 
or weights, and then secure the growing ends in 
an upright position as in fig. 1. Layers made in the 
spring should be well rooted by autumn. 
Propagation by JVIoitml Layering. 
A tree is cut off near the ground, and, after it has 
sent up a number of shoots, earth is heaped up 
Fig. 2.— PROPAGATION IN MOUNDS. 
around them. By the close of the growing season, 
each shoot will be sufficiently rooted to bear re¬ 
moval as a separate tree as shown in fig 2. 
Propagation by Stem Cutting*. 
Shoots of the wood that grew the previous year 
have been so generally recommended, that few 
have thought of using older wood. While using 
young shoots, when strong and vigorous, I have 
better results from older and larger sticks. From 
cuttings as large as one’s finger, and of the size of a 
hoe-handle, I get trees as large in one year as from 
smaller cuttiugs in two or three years. In the an¬ 
nual pruning, I save all the large sticks, whether 
they show any buds or not, but reject the very 
small shoots as having too little vitality. From 
the large cuttings I sometimes get a growth of over 
five feet the first year ; but small cuttings are very 
apt to fail, and never show any such results. When 
the earth is warmer than the air, the callus will 
form at the lower end of the cutting first, and 
when the air is wanner than the ground, the buds 
start before the roots, on which their future growth 
depends, are formed. AVith a soil of sandy loam, 
my preference is for a cutting about fifteen iuches 
long, to be planted a foot in the ground. The ad¬ 
vantages of setting so deep are, that it guards 
against drouth, and that it furnishes a greater 
length for the formation of roots, which come out 
through the bark, from the lower end as high as 
the soil is moist. In a moister soil, shorter cut¬ 
tings will succeed. Cuttings should be made when 
the tree is perfectly dormant, i. e., after the leaves 
have fallen in autumn, and before growth has com¬ 
menced in spring. A cutting is shown in figure 3. 
With the ground in proper condition, let them be 
' planted at the earliest opportunity. March is a 
Fig. 3. —A STEM CUTTING. 
good month when the ground will admit it. The 
earlier the better. With all the other conditions 
favorable, our cuttings may fail if we neglect to 
press the earth very firmly about them. This will 
be found to explain very many failures. 
Root Cut ting'*. 
Large roots, cut off near the base of the tree, are 
almost sure to send up sprouts. Small roots will 
sometimes do so. The best time to prepare root 
cuttings is just before the buds swell in the spring. 
I have one tree from a small root cut by the plow 
late in June. In planting root cuttings, fig. 4, it 
may be well to set them at an angle of 45°, or in 
about the position they occupied in the ground. 
By brafling. 
The thorn, apple, and pear have all been used as 
stocks for the quince, and this, in turn, has been 
used as a stock for the pear. The thorn is valued 
as a stock by some, on account of its strong roots, 
and its freedom from borers. Both roots and tops 
of apple trees are available for grafting. Quince 
trees on apple roots were exhibited at a recent 
meeting of the New Jersey Horticultural Society. 
All the methods of grafting may be used. Cions 
from a fruitful tree, grafted on a barren one, bore 
fine quinces the next year. I had the fruit of a 
“ Champion ” last year on a graft set in 1881; and 
the tree is now but three years old. Grafting on 
older trees is a convenient way of testing new varie¬ 
ties ; and also of proving the quality of seedlings. 
Cions should be cut after the leaves have fallen 
and before vegetation starts in spring, and win¬ 
tered in moist sand or sawdust. If not cut until 
spring, they may be set at once. By the aid of an 
ice-house, they can be kept in condition for use as 
long as desired. Some of the buds on vigorous 
stocks should be left to draw the sap, and secure a 
supply to the cions ; but all the shoots from them 
should be finally removed. 
ISy Budding'. 
This method is only recommended for the quince 
where grafts have failed, or where we wish to in¬ 
crease the kinds for which the other methods are 
not suited. Budding is most successfully per¬ 
formed in that part of the growing season when 
the bark can be easily separated for the insertion 
of the bud. If buds of the previous year are to be 
worked, the cions should be kept dormant until the 
young leaves of spring indicate that the bark will 
slip. If buds of the current year are used, they 
should be well developed. As soon as the cion or 
stick of buds is cut, the blade of every leaf should 
be removed, so that its evaporation may not injure 
the bud. If dormant buds have been used in 
spring the stocks should be cut away above them 
as soon as they begin to swell, and the shoots from 
the stock below rubbed off. If the buds of the cur¬ 
rent year have been successful, then the removal 
of the stocks should be deferred until next spring. 
Ashes—Wood and Coal. 
If there are fires for which wood is used, entirely 
or in large part, the ashes should be kept by them¬ 
selves. At the spring clearing up there will be an 
accumulation of ashes to dispose of. No one on a 
farm need be told of the great value of wood ashes 
as a fertilizer, and where they are not used for soap¬ 
making, not a shovelful should be wasted. The 
mass of coal ashes is not so readily disposed of ; 
aside from the ashes from the wood or charcoal 
used in kindling the fires that may be mixed with 
them, their value as a fertilizer is so slight that they 
are hardly worth the trouble of applying, especially 
as they are really useful near the house. Coal ashes, 
when mixed with a small proportion of soil, make 
a most servicable walk or path, which in a short time 
becomes very firm. Before any other disposal of 
them is considered, all needed paths should be 
secured. Starting from the back door, have a 
sufficiently broad walk laid to the out-buildings ; to 
the wood-house, the well, the barn, and others ; 
after these walks are provided, and there may not 
be ashes enough to make all in one season, give all 
the permanent paths in the kitchen garden, and the 
roads or drives near the house if not already firm, 
a surface dressing of two or three inches of coal 
ashes. Of course, if there are already gravel or 
other good walks and roads, we do not advise the 
use of ashes, but where these are of earth, coal ashes 
will make them nearly equal to the best. \A T lien 
first put down, and before they get hard, ashes 
will “ track” into the house, a trouble which suita¬ 
ble mats and admonitions will go far to prevent. 
