2 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
into good and bad sorts; the best eating 
Apples (called "dessert Apples" in the 
planters' lists), in nine cases out of ten, 
are the best for cooking, such as the 
Blenheim^ Newtown^ Cahille blanc^ 
Darcy Spice ^ Ribstone — when well 
grown, and every other iirst-rate eat- 
ing Apple. They differ a little in quality 
for the cook, but no one who knows 
them in cookery would ever again use 
an ill-flavoured Apple for this purpose. 
One of the great gains in cooking a 
first-rate Apple is that it finds its own 
sugar, as in the case of the Blen/ietm^ 
Newtown^ and Spitzberge7i . Sour and 
bad Apples that must be cooked with 
doses of manufactured sugar, lose a great 
part of their food value, and are often 
not wholesome. Certainly some of these 
first-rate Apples have not been com- 
mon, and some might think them too 
dear for cooking ; but this condition is 
becoming every day changed since the 
colonial and American growers raise 
only first-class Apples, and attend to 
their culture in the best state ; these 
good Apples are now coming into our 
markets in increasing quantities, and 
promise to be so abundant that all can 
afford them. The Newtown^ which at 
one time came only from Virginia in 
limited quantities, is now planted over 
a vast region in Oregon and other states, 
and is coming to our markets so freely 
that it can be used in all ways. In the 
face of such facts, why grow any but the 
best kinds at home ? Showing a great 
number of kinds of Apple, late in winter 
or at a spring show when many of them 
are out of their true season, has also a 
bad effect. Though carefully preserved 
so far as their skins go, if tasted, these 
fruits are without quality, but seeing 
them, the public are led to plant kinds 
of no value. 
In the great fruit shows of the year 
the classes for Pears (one of our most 
important fruits) were made up very 
largely of big showy kinds, easy to grow 
but of poor quality, such as Durondeau^ 
Pitmaston Dtichess^ and Beurre Clair- 
geau. Not only are these poor in them- 
selves, but they take up the space that 
I ought to be given to really good kinds, 
I for which the climate of our country 
j is suited : Pears like Marie Louise and 
I Wi?ite7^ Nelis. Pears do not come in 
i first-rate quality to our markets except 
I in small lots, and it behoves private 
growers, therefore, to grow more of the 
[ best Pears. We in Britain, if our kinds 
I are well chosen, can grow some of the 
best flavoured Pears ; it is wasting space 
to attempt any others. From what I 
saw in Belgium during the present year, 
I think a beautiful extension of Pear 
culture might be made by growing them 
as standard trees, always on the Pear 
stock, not on the Quince. By taking 
hardy kinds that ripen well in our 
country when grown as standards, we 
could be sure of their forming useful 
trees. Such varieties on a wall are 
difficult to keep within bounds, and 
many kinds suited for our country do 
not live long on the Quince. Pear-trees 
as standards are often beautiful to see, 
and the flavour of the fruit, when we 
get it, is in some cases finer than that 
from walls. A very close and rigid 
choice of Pears as regards flavour and 
hardiness, and the stocks they do best 
