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JOUBNAL OK HOBTICULTURE AND COTTA.GB GABDENEB. 



I Oscemboi 33, ItKtt 



Ceiaty of WaUhsm i« of « dull cherry ooloar, very loose in 

 («xture. These two Mr. Kent puts among his most brilliant 

 •crimson soarleta. Lord Macaiilay eucoeeds neither with me 

 nor with anyone that I know of in this neighbourhood. Its 

 bloseoms are email, and of a muddy plum colour, and the con- 

 stitution of the plant wretched. Kipoaition de Brio has not 

 had a single well-opened blossom, while Dr. Andry, which Mr. 

 Kent describee as dull, is with me almost the most brilliant- 

 floloared Base I have. Antoiuo Duoher is first-rate with me in 

 «I1 taspects ; Thorin the same. Charles Kouillard has bloomed 

 moat profusely ; the blossom most regular in shape, but the 

 ■aolour, a poor liJao, is unpleasing to me.- -Q. Q. 



MELONS ON JUDGES. 



It may interest amateur gardeners to know, that although 

 the summer was very backward tbia year, I have again to re- 

 cord my success ia growing the Melon Achapesinorricher (scarlet 

 flesh), out of doors on a riJge, and although, owing to the late 

 spring frosts. I was unable to turn the plants out so early as 

 last year, still I grew some excellent fruit, the largest weighing 

 f>i lbs. The old Beechwood Melon (green flesh) also, under 

 the same treatment succeeded well and produced even better- 

 dlToured fruit than the same sort grown in a frame ; though 

 small, weighing but 2i Ib^., yet they were handsome, and, as 1 

 before remarked, of exceedingly good flavour ; in fact, eo good 

 that some of my friends intend in future to rely on out-door 

 •oultore for this part of the year. 



I tind the beds should elope towards the south. The crowns 

 •of the plants should have a pot placed over them to protect 

 tUem from the wet and too much sun, and the fruit should 

 rest on elate, otherwise the part touching the ground is apt to 

 rot. 



Planters should be particular that the plants receive no 

 clieok from putting them out too early, or taking them from 

 a very warm frame. The larger the hand-lights tne young 

 plants when placed in the bed are covered with the better. In 

 my own case, those only covered with small bell-glaases when 

 first planted produced the smallest fruit, while those started 

 under a ground vinery grew the largest and best, though all 

 were planted in the same soil and on the same day. — Harbison 

 Weib, U'eirlcigh, Kent. 



GOOD CIDEi; APPLES. 



J^At the request of several correspondents we have inquired 

 ■for the names of these, and the following is a reply we have 

 obtained. — Eds.] 



It is difficult to obtain the names of the best cider Apples, 

 for men who understand the art of making excellent cider are 

 very often ignorant of the names of the trees in their orchard 

 ■from the fruit of which it is made. One of my neighbours, how- 

 ever, of whom I bought a hogshead of first-rate cider in the 

 spring of tins year, tells me that he makes his best of Boyal 

 Wilding, the Norman, and SkyrmeV Kernel, all mixed together. 



The Koyal Wilding is of good quality, yielding better than 

 "family" drink, but not quite equal to the others. The Nor- 

 man is a vigorous grower, an important point in a light soil, 

 and soon comes into bearing. Several of the best cider Apples 

 seem, like the old Golden Pippin and the Kibston, to have worn- 

 out their constitution. Such are the highly-valued Skyrme's 

 Kernel, of which even newly-grafted trees are feeble and sickly, 

 and the famous Fox Whelp, which yields a dry cider of oon- 

 eiJerable strength, not long remaining luscious as some ciders 

 do, but reaching muturity early, and fit to drink in a few 

 •aionths after it is made. This Apple is still grown in Here- 

 ford.«hire, and I bought a good cask of its cider this year. 

 The White and the Yellow Styre produce cider which has been 

 known to sell at 25. Cul. a-gallon — a high price in this part of the 

 world — but they are somewhat shy bearers. In Mr. Knight's 

 "Pomona Herefordiensis " it is mentioned that the I'.randy 

 .Apple, now chiefly known as a dessert fruit, used, as well as 

 the G.Jden Pippin, to be extensively grown as a cider Apple, 

 and that it takes its name from the potency of the beverage 

 produced from it. I have heard of its being still used for this 

 purpose, and also of its continued strength. The Hereford- 

 shire Kcd-streak is another well-known Apple, but I am not 

 sure of its constitution. Among the best is the Black Kington or 

 Kingston, the cider of which from a farm in this neighbourhood 

 gained the prize last year both at Hereford and at Gloucester. 



,lu Somorsetshue 1 have heard that no fi-uit is more highly 



esteemed than the ITnderleaf, which takes its name from the 

 peculiar way in which the fruit is concealed by the foliage. 



The best cider in this county is made on olay lands, and on 

 a light soil the vigorous and large-leaved kinds, Buoh as the 

 Blenheim Pippin, among dessert fruit, are the most »uoceea(al. 

 It will be well fur your correspondent to bear in mind the quality 

 of bis soil, and adapt his trees to it. 



" The best sorts of fruit are the Royal Wilding, Fox Whelp, 

 White Bush Normandy, Yellow Styro, Handsome Mandy, and 

 Skyrme's Kernel." — {(^iiutaiion /mm a letter of a priifUikfT in 

 isr.ii.) 



A correspondent says he has only two kinds of Apples from 

 which he has succeeded in making the best cider — that ia, 

 cider sufficiently good and rich for bottling, and these are the 

 Devonshire Ited-streak and the Kingston Black Apple, the 

 latter of which makes much the richest of any Apple that be 

 has ever known, though not, perhaps, eqnal in strength to the 

 Devonshire Bed-streak, or some other kinds ; but he prefers a 

 mixture of those Apples to makenice and palatable aider ; thongh 

 it is more difficult to manage, being more liable to fret and 

 become of inferior quality when mixed than when made 

 separately. He has exhibited cider made from the Kingston 

 on two occasions at Hereford, and on three at Gloncestei 

 (which are the only times he has exhibited), and has received 

 four first prizes for it, two of which were in October and 

 November last ; therefore, he thinks that he is justilied in 

 supposing there is no Apple in Herefordshire or Ulouoeste 

 shire which surpasses it. — Wveside. * 



BOILERS-HEATING THEM AND BY THEM. 



I EXPECTED to have my views about heating boilers from 

 above controverted, as I was well aware that they are contrary 

 to preconceived notions ; but Mr. Woolfield ought to know that 

 contradiction is not argument, and it is no compliment to say 

 I did not retleot. 



An oven is heated much the same aa water in a boiler, by 

 the heated particles of air rising, and the top of an oven wiU 

 always be hotter than the bottom. It is true that water is 

 boiled by convection ; but it is a very different thing boiling 

 water in a kettle over the tire to boiling water in a close boiler 

 like a saddle boiler, where there is a flow. pipe to carry the 

 water off when heated, the cold water being supplied by the 

 return ; and when once the fire is well lighted and begins to aet 

 upon the water, a constant current or circulation o( water ia 

 kept up. The relative value of heating surfaces which Mr. 

 Woolfield quotes is very arbitrary, and refers more to boilers 

 set for generating steam ; but even were I to allow (which I do 

 not), that the relative values of heating surfaces are such as 

 he quotes from Molesworth's " Engineers' Pocket-book," yet 

 even then I can prove that the flame playing over the top of a 

 saddle boiler has much more relative value than he is inclined 

 to admit. The top of a saddle boiler is convex, and therefore 

 varies from vertical to horizontal. Take the average of the 

 curve, the value of the vertical surface being 0.50, and of the 

 horizontal 0.00, the value of the heating surface of the whole 

 curve will aveiage 0.2.'i ; and as in most saddle boilers the 

 exterior curve is about one-fourth larger in point of surface 

 than the interior curve, this will raise the value to O.Ma as the 

 average value of the whole heating .surface of the upper part of 

 tbe boiler. And, as in the same way, the interior upper surface 

 of the boiler is concave, the value of the heating surface of 

 the interior will vary according to Jlr. Woolficld's laws from 

 0.^0 to 1.00, or, taking the average, it will be 0.75 ; so that, 

 even according to the data given by Mr. Woolfield, the exterior 

 upper surface bears no small relative value to the interior — 

 I I'., o o43 to 0.7j. If Mr. Woolfield denies the accuracy of 

 this he will have to deny there is any heat given to the upper 

 surface of pipes when introduced into boilers, as in the case of 

 one of Ormson's new patent tubular boilers, as see the right- 

 hand figure in the advertisement which occurs every week in 

 " our Journal," or, again, in Shanks'e combined saddle and 

 tubular. It is, however, absurd to give 0.00 as the value of 

 hori7,ontal surfaces under flame ; because, if this were true, 

 and these pipes, as in the two instances 1 have quoted, we:e 

 square instead of round, the upper one-fourth would be of no 

 use ; besides which, the relative value of 00 to 1.00 is infinite 

 and indefinite. The value of horizontal surfaces under flame 

 must be definite — that is to say, it must bear some relative 

 proportion, and I have yet to be convinced that it does not bear 

 a much greater value than what is usually allowed ; because, as 



