THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



53 



receding, in successive generations, Ironi ihati irue sprou.s, which ilie exienl ol my garden allovv- 



excellence," the cause ol' lus Persian melons de-' 



lerioraling became apparent ; and he tound that 



by bringing the cuhivalion ot the pianls lo a slate 



ol great perlection, he succeeded cotnpieiely in 



rendering the original qualiiy hereditary, as lonti 



as those precautions were observed. No man 



was more successlul in the cultivation of the 



melon than Mr. Knight ; and it is in the memory oi 



many persons, that the quality of his sweet melons 



of Isjiahan has very rarely been equalled. The 



peculiar niethuds thai he adojiled appear lo have 



been the compleie and most careful preservation 



of the leaves Ironi iiijury of whatever kind, the 



lull exposure of their surliice to light, and the aug- 



luentaiion of the ordinary vvarinih ol a melon bed 



by availing himself of the heat reflecied from 



brick tiles with which liis bed was paved. To 



such an extent was hie care of the leaves carried, 



that he would not allow even the watering to be 



periormed " over-head," but he caused his gar- 

 dener to pour water, from a vessel of proper con- 

 struction, upon the brick tiles between the leaves, 



without touching them. (See various papers 



upon the melon nW-h^ Horticultural Transactiuna, 



and especially that in vol. vii. [). 584.) 



VVhil. , however, such are the general principles 



upon which ihe preservation of the peculiar quali- 

 ties of ihe many races of cultivated annuals 



necessarily depends, it must be con'e.-sed thai, 



ed me eaeiiy to do. Ihe second towing brought 

 iheai back a good deal lo their true character ; 

 the plants yielaed small cabbages regularly at 

 each axil, but not generally full or cumpacl, and 

 ihey did not shoot a second time, as liie iiue sort 

 does. 1 again suHered these lo run lo seeU, using 

 the same precaution of keeping them by them- 

 selves. 1 sowed the seed, and this lime ihe plants 

 were Ibundtohave entirely recovered their original 

 habits, their head, and rich produce." {IJort. 

 Trans., lii. 197.) 1 must conless, however, iluii, 

 although the passage merits quotation, lor the 

 sake 01 exciting aiienlion lo the subject, it appears 

 to niH very doubllul wheihcrlhe case has ueen 

 fully, if correctly, stated. 



UPON THE 31AKING OF CIDER. 



From tlie London Farmers' Magazine. 



The production of good cider must depend upon 

 the description ol fruit ol which it is made, ihe sea- 

 son and stale of the aj pies when they are crushed, 

 and the management of the juice whilst it is ler- 

 menting. It will iherelore be proper lo consider 

 the subject under these three heads separately : — 



The kind of apple which makes the best cider. — 



The acid wiiicn gives the peculiar quick and sharp 

 according'to report, there are circumstances upon I feeling upon the palate in good cider, having been 

 which science can throw no light, and which, if ' first noticed m the apple, although it exists in 



true, must depend upon conditions as yet unsus 

 |)ecied lo exist. Of this cf.ss is the following, 

 respecting the Brussels sprouts cabbage, given 

 upon the authority of M. Van JVlons. 



" Much has been said of the disposition of this 

 plant to degenerate. In the soil of Biufsels it 

 remains true, and I have lately observed it to do 

 the same at Louvain ; but al Malines, which is 

 the same distance irom Brussels as Louvain, and 

 where the greatest attention is paid to the growth 

 of vegetables, it deviates from its proper character, 

 alter the first sowing : yet it does not seem thai 

 any particular soil or aspect is esseniial to the 

 plant, for it grows equally well and true at Brus- 

 sels, in the gardens ol the town, where the soil is 

 sandy and mixed with a black moist loam, as in 

 the fields, where a compact white clay predomi- 

 nates. The progress of deterioration at Malines 

 was most rapid ; the plants raised from seed ol the 

 true sort, which I had sent there, produced the 

 sprouts in little bunches or rosettes, in their true 

 form ; seeds of those being saved, they gave 



many other fruits, has been termed the malic acid. 

 It may not be loo much lo say, that it is the due 

 cumbinalion of this acid vviih saccharine mailer, 

 namely, the sugar of the apple, properly lermeni- 

 ed, which are the obji^cis to be aimed at in the 

 manulaclure of cider. In the selection of the liuii, 

 will depend the proportion ol malic acid contained 

 in the liquor. The crab has a much greater 

 quantity of this acid than the cultivated fruit ; and 

 generally speaking, in proportion as we obtain 

 sweetness by culture, we deprive the apple of iu 

 malic acid. Hence, it follows that some delicious 

 table fruils will not make good cider: this rule, 

 however, is not invariable, as the golden pippin 

 and some other fine apples appear to contain the 

 proper admixture of acid and sweetness which is 

 desirable in the liquor. Mr. Knight recommends 

 that the different sorts of fruit be kept separate, 

 and considers that only those apples which are 

 yellow or mixed with red make good cider, and 

 that the fruit of which the flesh or rind is green arc 

 very inferior ; he recommends that the apples 



pianls in which the sprouts did not lorm into lillle should be perlecily ripe, even mellow, but never 

 cabbages, but were expanded ; nor did they shoot | decayed, before they are crushed. There was a 



again at the axils of the stem. The plants raised 

 Irom ihc seed of these last mentioned only pro- 

 duced lateral shoots with weak pendent leaves, and 

 tops similar lo the shoots, so that in three genera- 

 tions the entire character of the original was lost. 

 From a plant in the state last described, seed was 

 saved at my request, and sent back to me. I had 

 it sown by iuelf, and carefully watched the plants 

 in their growth ; I was not long in discovering that 

 they retained the same characier of degeneration 

 they had assumed at Malines, and preserved it 

 throughout the whole course of their growtli, 

 yielding pendulous leaves with long petioles, and 

 having no disposition to cabbage. I suffered these 

 plants to run to seed at a great distance from my 



curious manuscript wrilten by Dr. John Beale, a 

 fellow of the Royal Society in 1657, upon the sub- 

 ject, from which the lollowing are extracts : — 

 " Crabs and wild pears, such as grow in the wildest 

 and most barren clilis, and on hills, make the rich- 

 est, strongest, ihe most pleasant, and lasting wines 

 that England yet yields, or is ever likely to yield. 

 I have so well proved it already by so many hun- 

 dred experiments in Herefordshire, that wise men 

 tell me that these parts of England are some 

 hundred thousand pounds sterling the belter lor 

 tl)e knowledge of it." He mentions of ihese 

 kinds of austere fruit, the Bromsbury crab, the 

 Barland pear, and intimates " that though ihc 

 discovery of them was then but lately made, jel 



