This fruit, with its uses, for drying, cooking, marmalades, flavors to
tarts and pies made of other fruits, and for preserving as a sweetmeat,
is well known and highly esteemed.
The quince is rather a shrub than a tree. It should be set ten feet
apart each way, in deep, rich soil. It needs little pruning, except
removing dead or cross branches, and cutting off and burning at once,
twigs affected with the insect-blight, as mentioned under pears. The
soil should be manured every year, by working-in a top-dressing of fine
manure, including a little salt.
_Propagation_--is by seeds, buds, or cuttings. Budding does very well.
Seedlings are not always true to the varieties. Cuttings, put out early
and a little in the shade, nearly all take. This is the best and easiest
method of propagation.
There are several varieties; the _apple-shaped_, _pear-shaped_, and the
_Portugal_, are the principal.
The apple-shaped, or orange quince (and perhaps the large-fruited may be
the same) is, on the whole, the best of all. Early, a great bearer, and
excellent for all uses. The pear-shaped is smaller, harder, and later.
It may be kept longer in a green state, and therefore be carried much
farther. The only reason for cultivating it would be its lateness and
its keeping qualities. The Portugal quince is the finest fruit of all,
but is such a shy bearer as to be unprofitable. The _Rea quince_ is a
seedling raised by Mr. Joseph Rea, of Greene county, New York, and is
pronounced by Downing "an acquisition." The fruit is very handsome, and
one third larger than the common apple or orange quince. The tree is
thrifty, hardy, and productive. It is a valuable modification of the
apple-shaped or orange quince, superior to the original. Such varieties
may be multiplied and improved, by new seedlings and high cultivation.