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JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. C Dacember 27, isot 



around the house is varied by gentle swells and graceful 

 slopes ; here dipping into easy hollows, and there rising in 

 gradual ascents of moderate height. The varied undula- 

 tions, and the different shadows and tints of mild colouring 

 thrown across the view by the diiferent inequalities, form 

 of themselves a pleasing picture. 



I cannot conclude without returning my grateful acknow- 

 ledgments to Mr. Mackie, the head gardener, for his hospi- 

 tality and kindness in accompanying me to all the various 

 scenes in this extensive and beautiful park. — W. Keane. 



ASPARAGUS-BEDS— FRENCH CULTURE. 



I do not know if it be permissible to comment on your 

 answers to correspondents, but if so, may I be allowed to 

 make a few remarks on "G. A.'s" answer to "H. N. E.," 

 page 479, No. 194. 



I cannot tell what the questions may have been, that were 

 put by "H. N. E.," but presume them to have been elicited 

 by my short paper on the French method of cultivating 

 this esculent in your Number of the 1st of November ; but I 

 will confine myself to the remarks of "G. A." He says — 

 " There is no benefit in the French system, unless you wish 

 to have Asparagus with a long, slender, underground shoot, 

 with no more of it eatable than the green or purple tips." 

 "Well, I must not be rude, so will merely say, that it appears 

 to me rather a cool assertion, after my description of that 

 grown by L'Heraut, pereet fils, a bundle of thirty-six heads 

 of which weighs 14 lbs. I admit that the shoots are long, 

 very long, 14 inches, but with that weight the reverse of 

 slender, I think. 



I saw the plants growing, and although I certainly did 

 not measure them, yet I may venture to say that the stems 

 were li inch in diameter above the ground. Is that called 

 slender ? " G. A." then goes on to say, " In what way the 

 uncovering of the roots in winter can benefit the plants we 

 cannot perceive." I beg his pardon, he does perceive it, and 

 very clearly, too, which he proves himself, as he says a little 

 further on, "The beds being covered with soil in spring, it 

 is necessary to take a quantity off in autumn, so as to prevent 

 the crowns rotting, as they are liable to do when in a wet 

 soil, and in order that the roots may be better manured." 

 That is it exactly. I could not put it better myself. 



Again, he says, " The earthing-up in spring blanches to 

 the length of 9 inches, with the tips just coloured. Such 

 look very nice, but are tasteless, the underground white 

 part being about as tough as the root of an Elm tree." May 

 I ask "G. A." if he has ever been in France, and did he 

 ever eat French Asparagus ? Does he know that hundreds 

 of pounds sterling are taken of Englishmen weekly in the 

 " Holies " of Paris, for this vegetable for the London market ? 



Does he think that Frenchmen, notably the greatest epi- 

 cures in the world, that Englishmen who can afford to pay 

 20s. for a bundle of thirty-six heads of Asparagus, would be 

 likely to eat it, if it were as tasteless and tough as an old Elm 

 tree ? I can assert, on the contrary, that it is deliriously 

 tender, and full of flavour, green, purple, and white. 



I fear " G. A." is one who thinks nothing can be good 

 out of England. I do not particularly object to that, I 

 rather admire a man of good, obstinate prejudices in favour 

 of his own country, as Dr. Johnson liked a good hater. 



I could not, perhaps, discuss scientifically this question 

 with " G. A.," but I see the naked fact staring me in the 

 face — the French produce finer Asparagus than we do. We 

 cannot get over that. Let us try, then, and equal them if 

 we cannot surpass them. L'Heraut tells me we shall never 

 do this last, because we have no worn-out vineyards in this 

 country, and that is the soil especially adapted for the growth 

 of Asparagus.— H. S. Watson, The Cottage, Old Charlton. 



[It is quite admissible to comment upon anything that 

 appears in our columns, for we have no object but the elicit- 

 ing of truth. We have seen Asparagus grown in England 

 as large as that named by our correspondent, A bundle was 

 exhibited any three heads of which weighed a pound. It 

 was, ds our correspondent describes the Frenca Asparagus, 

 fully a foot in length ; but then if 3 or 4 inches of the French 

 Asparagus are eatable, then is it superior to that we saw 

 exhibited of English growth, for of that not more than from 

 1 to 2 inches were edible, the rest, as "G. A." describes it, 



was " as tough as the root of an Elm tree." Soil, no doubt, 

 has much influence over Asparagus, but climate has more. 

 In a warm climate where its progress is more rapid, the 

 white part during early growth is less woody, as for the 

 same reason it is in forced Asparagus. — Eds.] 



PEARS FOR THORN STOCKS. 



I shall feel obliged if you will inform me what varieties 

 of Pears take best on the Thorn. I have an idea that, 

 double-worked, it will be a very good stock in some soils ; 

 but so far as my own experiments go, although the fruit 

 seems to be improved in flavour, the trees are short-lived. 

 If I could find a sort that took kindly and grew vigorously 

 I should feel inclined to propagate it freely. — T. G. 



[The Vicar of Winkfield and Louise Bonne of Jersey you 

 will find two varieties that make a vigorous growth on the 

 Hawthorn. That some varieties are not short-lived when 

 grown on that stock we have sufficient evidence, for we know 

 a tree of the Styrian nearly thirty years old which is now 

 perfectly healthy, and bears an abundance of fruit annually. 

 This is a subject we should like to see carried out more fully 

 than it has hitherto been by fruit-growers.] 



BIRMINGHAM FRUIT SHOW. 



In your last week's impression appeared a well-written 

 paper by Mr. W. Miller, which in my opinion was indeed 

 a word in season. I attended the above Exhibition, and 

 looked carefully through the different classes, and I was 

 quite as much surprised as Mr. Miller seems to have been 

 at the way in which raany things were managed. In the 

 first place, the first prize for twelve varieties of kitchen 

 Apples was awarded to Mr. C. J. Perry, one of the Honorary 

 Secretaries. This collection should have been disqualified, 

 not but that it was undoubtedly the finest collection, but it- 

 consisted of only eleven varieties, two dishes containing 

 Blenheim Grange — one dish exhibited under the above name, 

 and the other under the name of Blenheim Pippin, which 

 every gardener knows to be one and the same variety. 



In the second place, the gentlemen's gardeners who exhi- 

 bited at this Show are not likely to exhibit again unless 

 under very different conditions ; for one well-known fruit- 

 cultivator told me that it was the first and last time he 

 should think of exhibiting on any such terms. If it is foreign 

 fruit that is wished for by the managers of the above Society, 

 why not have a collection limited to such, and also a col- 

 lection of English-grown fruit for Enghsh gardeners to 

 exhibit, and of which they might be justly proud, instead 

 of inviting them to be at the expense of conveying their own 

 productions to and from an exhibition, without the slightest 

 chance of success, against Channel Islands' fruit ? It is not 

 to be expected that gentlemen's gardener's with their nume- 

 rous and never-ending duties, if they even wished so to do, 

 could find time to tear about the country like a commercial 

 traveller to hunt up the finest dishes of different examples 

 they might meet with, much less could they visit the Channel 

 Islands. 



In the third place, the twelve first and four second-prize 

 cards placed in front of the Hon. Secretary's winning col- 

 lections contained the following words : — " First or second 

 prize (as the case might be), to C. J. Perry, Esq. ; " but then 

 followed, " Gardener, Thomas Pointon." This last part at 

 least must be a delusion, for what could this Thomas Poin- 

 ton know about the greater part of his master's winning- 

 dishes of fruit ? Nothing more than, perhaps, the unpack- 

 ing thereof. What care or pains had this gardener bestowed 

 on their production that his name should so figure ? How 

 often had he rolled down the tiffany to protect the blossoms 

 in the spring ? or later in the season carefully thinned 

 the fruit ? or, later still, protected it against and watched 

 for wasps and other pests ? There were exhibitors at this 

 Exhibition who had bestowed all due care upon their pro- 

 ductions; but how did they stand? Why, by the side of 

 this fine foreign fruit they were many lengths behind. It 

 may be said they were not obliged to exhibit. Certainly 

 not ; but why send invitations round, and so get together 

 some good growers with good English productions, to find 



