158 



WilmoVs Fruit Garden. 



Vol. X. 



and Romans were careful to eradicate all 

 bitter tasting herbs from the vicinity of their 

 apiaries, lest they should impart a bad quality 

 to the honey. According to De Lille, the 

 bee-keepers of Languedoc also pay gieat at- 

 tention to this point. Even wild species of 

 honey-bees will resort to noxious plants quite 

 as readily as the domestic species — 



"Like to tliose bees of Trebizond 



Which, from the sunniest flowers that glad 



With their pure smile the gardens round. 

 Draw venom forth wliicli drives men mad." 



An intoxicating and poisonous honey is 

 extracted from the flowers of the moiil^s- 

 hood, or aconite, by tlie choura, or wild rock 

 bee of Gurwhal (Apis irritahilis.) 



These facts make it not improbable that 

 many more persons die from eating poison- 

 ous animal food than is generally supposed, 

 and witliout the cause of death ever being 

 suspected. — Chambers' Journal. 



Mr. Wilmot's Fruit Garden. 



Isleworth, Sept. 25th, 1844. 



Probably no such extensive establish- 

 ments for the cultivation of fruit as tliose of 

 Messrs. Wilmot, Keens, and others around 

 London, are to be found. Their names are 

 familiar to most of our readers, from their 

 well known seedling strawberries, for a 

 long time the only large kinds worthy of 

 cultivation. Mr. Wilmot's grounds are only 

 six or seven miles from the city, but they 

 contain, in the different lots, upwards of 100 

 acres of land wholly occupied with fruit. 

 Immense quantities of fruit are forced, and 

 we think iVIr. Wilmot informed us that his 

 crop of grapes alone was several tons. Pine 

 apples are also cultivated to a great extent, 

 and we saw large quantities now just swel- 

 ling off their fruit. 



The principal forcing houses are situated 

 in a w-alled enclosure of about half an acre, 

 and seven ranges of glass 90 feet each are 

 heated from one large boiler, measuring 

 eight feet long; a main flow and return 

 pipe leads from this along one end of the 

 houses, and from it branch off six smaller 

 pipes into each. They may all be heated 

 at once, or only a single one ; by means of 

 stop-cocks at the junction of the branches 

 with the main pipes, the water can be turned 

 off or on at pleasure. Mr. Wilmot thinks 

 this by far the most economical mode that 

 can be adopted for heating such an extent 

 of glass. 



The grapes are forced early, and they 

 were now all cut, the wood fully ripe, and 

 the earliest houses would soon be set in ope- 

 ration again. Mr, Wilmot pointed out to 



us a new mode of planting vines for very 

 early forcing. The usual mode is to plant 

 them at the front wall, either inside or out- 

 side ; the objections to this are, that the 

 roots are exposed to a temperature many 

 degrees lower than the branches, and, con- 

 sequently, the grapes are inferior flavoured, 

 and often do not colour well. Mr. Wilmot's 

 plan is to plant them in the middle of the 

 house, one vine under the middle of each 

 sash, and not under the rafter; a main stem 

 is taken up to the glass, where it is allowed 

 to branch off in all directions. In this way, 

 the roots receive the benefit of the heat im- 

 parted to the soil by the flues, and the vines 

 receive all the light, which, in this climate, 

 is more important than with us. For very 

 early forcing, we think the plan worthy of 

 imitation. One house was devoted wholly 

 to Muscats, and we found here the Muscat 

 of Alexandria; the Tottenham Park Mus- 

 cat, which, Mr. Wilmot says, is quite dis- 

 tinct; the Portugal Muscat, similar to the 

 Muscat of Alexandria, but a free bearer, 

 and sets unusually well: the Cannon Hall 

 Muscat, very fine ; and the Cannon Hall 

 Muscat Seedling, raised by Mr. Wilmot, 

 new and fine. 



In one of the other houses, we found a 

 single bunch of that splendid grape, Wil- 

 mot's new Black Hamburgh, v.'hich has been 

 stated by .some to be the same as the old 

 Black Hamburgh; it is, however, quite dis- 

 tinct. Having vines ourselves, we were 

 not only anxious to settle this question, 

 though we had perceived the leaves were 

 quite different, but were desirous of testing 

 its quality; this we were enabled to do by 

 the kindness of Mr. Wilmot, and we can 

 recommend it as one of the largest and 

 most splendid varieties, and also of first-rate 

 flavor. It has a firmer flesh than the old 

 Black Hamburgh ; the berries are perfectly 

 round, and very large, but the bunch does 

 n<i'v' attain a large size. At the time we 

 now write, we have this new kind in bear- 

 ing; it was raised ten years ago. Mr. Wil- 

 mot recommended another seedling variety 

 of the Hamburgh, which he also cultivates 

 very largely. The Chasselas Musque is 

 another variety which sells well in the Lon- 

 don market. Another quite new grape is 

 the Prince Albert, which is said to be supe- 

 rior to the Black Hamburgh ; Mr. Wilmot 

 had only one vine of this. West's St. Peter's 

 is a fine late grape distinct from the old St. 

 Peter's. 



On the walled enclosure, are trained pears, 

 and among them, we saw the Van Mons 

 Leon Le Clerc in bearing. In the orchard, 

 the trees were bending beneath the weight 

 of the fruit, and the Beurre Diels, as stand- 



