366 THE GARDENER. [Aug. 



NOTES FROM THE PAPERS. 



About this period last year we referred to the comments made frequently by 

 the press on the unfavourable character of the season. It was then thought 

 things could hardly be worse ; but if 1S77 was unusually late and cold, 1879 

 has, up to this date — the middle of July — proved even more so. A winter of 

 unparalleled length and severity, extending quite through the spring, has been 

 followed by an equally unfavourable summer. In many districts crops are 

 reckoned to be quite six weeks late, or more ; and even in the south fears are 

 beginning to be entertained that there will be no harvest. As the Archbishop 

 of Canterbury observed recently, the "inclement weather we have had lately 

 amounts to a national calamity. It is like war or pestilence, or any other de- 

 vastating agency, and so terrible in its consequences that people are impelled 

 to appeal direct to all merciful Providence for speedy deliverance and succour." 

 It is stated that the rain one day last week damaged the hay crops to the ex- 

 tent of five hundred thousand pounds. Towards the end of June snow fell in 

 some parts of the midlands ; and on the first of July, as the local papers re- 

 corded at the time, "a large number of lambs were literally starved to death " 

 on the low-lying lands near Edde, in Derbyshire ; and in other districts, on the 

 hills, lambs were frozen to death. And records of weather hardly less severe 

 come from many other parts of the kingdom. At one time, before the passing 

 of the Corn Laws, such a season as the present would have produced a famine 

 in the land, especially in depressed times like the present; but as it is, the bad 

 harvest prospects have hardly affected the price of food. Foreign importations 

 have lately been enormous, and best flour does not exceed two shillings per 

 stone. The harvests in Germany are reported to be almost unprecedentedly 

 excellent, and in America the crops are up to the average, and in some instances 

 they exceed it. The " cold wave " seems to embrace an area of which England, 

 France, and Italy occupy the centre, while other countries lying to the right 

 and left of the current have only felt its eddy. A friend of ours lately returned 

 from B,ome informs us that the season there was causing the greatest uneasiness ; 

 the rains had not been so frequent and heavy since 1819. Another correspon- 

 dent, writing from Paris on the 4th of July, sa\s, "The weather is just the 

 same here as in England — wet and miserable." The habitues of Rotten Row, 

 in London, are loud in their lamentations. One paper says, " A.W. fetes or enjoy- 

 ments seem to be put off indefinitely on account of the weather, and we never 

 knew so many people leaving London in search of a better climate. Can there 

 be anything amiss with the great oceanic currents that influence our climate ? 

 It has been noticed that in America the Atlantic seaboard has felt the cold 

 most, and that in this country the winds have been unusually cold from what- 

 ever quarter they blew. 



Is Asparagus spoiled by the process of blanching ? This question has 

 been discussed more than once in 'The Garden,' where a correspondent 

 has lately answered the same in the negative. The prevailing notion among 

 English gardeners, however, certainly tends the other way : whether they 

 are right or wrong, we offer no opinion. English Asparagus is usually cut 

 about 6 or 7 inches long ; of that length two or three inches of the top 

 only is tender and well flavoured in a raw state. The top is brittle, and 

 snaps like a tender French Bean, but the bottom part is tough and stringy, 

 and is usually cut off in cooking. This is undoubtedly a regrettable waste, 

 which, your contemporary says, need not occur if the heads are properly 

 cooked. Asparagus-roots, when forced in this country, either in the beds or 



