210 
RAFID, SLOW, OR MEDIUM GROWTH. 
seed from thcnr, and raising seedlings ; by 
which means lie will procure new varieties, 
perhaps, in advance of his neighbours. 
EFFECT OF RAPID, SLOW, OR MEDIUM 
GROWTH. 
There is a vast difference between the 
productions of the garden, according to the 
mode of treating them, the size of every thing 
always affecting its flavour. The first consi- 
deration, therefore, is, do you want strength of 
flavour, or otherwise ? Generally speaking, we 
want vegetables to be mild, therefore they can- 
not be grown too large. Generally speaking, 
again, we require fruit to be highly flavoured, 
and therefore they can be grown too large. 
Had not the eye as well as the palate to be 
pleased, we should never care to have fruit of 
any kind beyond an ordinary size; but in vege- 
tables the more rapid the growth the better. 
Cabbages, onions, radishes, spinach, cauli- 
flowers, brocoli, &c. are praised for mildness, 
and condemned when they are of strong 
flavour ; the former is always the result of 
rapid, free growth, -the latter of a stunted 
growth. A cucumber is milder, celery is 
milder, even horse-radish, stringent as it is, 
is very much milder, when grown rapidly, 
than when its growth is slow. The Spanish 
and Portuguese onion is mild compared with 
ours, because its growth is free and rapid. The 
Spanish onion seed grown here is never so 
mild, because it is danger making its growth, 
and less when it is.-grown. Fruit has its sea- 
son of growth, like anything else, and the skill 
of the gardener is used to grow it large. The 
excellence of fruit is — stupidly enough — to be 
decided by its size in almost all cases, when 
in nine cases out of ten, nay, ninety-nine 
cases of a hundred, it loses flavour in propor- 
tion to its beauty. No one can complain, in a 
general way, of the want of flavour in a grape 
such as we see at shows. It would be affecta- 
tion, to say that a splendid large Muscat of 
Alexandria was, when well ripened, short of 
quality ; but by comparison, that is to say, by 
the side of one that had been the whole season 
growing only half the size, it would be found 
weaker and less rich. Nobody will venture 
to say that a five-pound Queen Pine is so 
good as one of two or three, grown in the same 
time. Nobody will venture to show for flavour 
a melon of excessive growth against one of 
moderate growth of the same sort. The Jersey 
Charmontelle Pears are handsome fruit, as 
compared with the English grown, and bring 
more money, but they are no more to be com- 
pared for flavour than a turnip with an orange. 
We do not complain of people's taste ; we are 
simply stating facts, and showing, that accord- 
ing to what you want, so ought you to provide. 
If we wanted currants for wine, we should not 
look for fine fruit: small currants are more 
highly flavoured. Let a red Warrington goose- 
berry grow of its ordinary garden size, and the 
flavour is exquisite ; grow it as large as you 
can for show, and it is absolutely washy in 
comparison. Let there be found on a pear 
tree, — say one on a wall, for which all things 
requisite have been done, — let there be found 
an ill-formed fruit, one that has been stunted, 
and cat that, and compare it with one of the 
finest, and you will at once see that the stunt- 
ing, or the slow growth, and the high flavour 
go together. But we must not confound this 
subject by considering all large fruit are of 
inferior flavour, but that large fruit of a par- 
ticular kind are worse flavoured than ordinary 
sized ones of the same kind, that is, weaker 
flavoured, which in fruit is always an objection, 
but in vegetables an excellence. In vegetables, 
the younger they are the better they are ; but 
this is only in cases where the growth is 
checked as it grows old. A summer cabbage 
is always mild, but it will continue mild as 
long as the growth is not checked ; so that, 
until it gets hard in the heart, and thereby 
checked in its growth, it will eat well. Thus is it 
that a white, close cabbage, as hard as it can 
well be, will be rich and fine when properly 
cooked; but if allowed to remain on the ground 
in that state, or be a few days cut, it becomes 
in either case rank and strong. Turnips sown 
at a good season grow quickly, and taken 
while in growth will be fine ; but the same 
seed, sown in a dry season, advance but slowly, 
and eat strong, and if left a little longer on 
the ground they become woody and stringy, 
as well as hot and strong. We might run 
through the whole list of fruits and vegetables, 
and prove these facts in each and every case; 
but we have been content to mention those 
which our readers must be familiar with, be- 
cause facts brought home to one's mind bring 
conviction. Of those proofs, connected with 
vegetables, enough has been said; but perhaps, 
as regards fruit, people are not so easily con- 
vinced, because, excepting those who can taste 
under the same circumstances, none can judge 
well. If we take a well-ripened bunch of 
grapes, and find among the berries some small 
ones as fully ripe, they are always of finer flavour. 
If an orange tree happens to have, as those who 
grow them must have seen, two or three very 
much smaller than the general crop, they 
will be found richer, that is, stronger in flavour. 
Take a middle-sized strawberry of any sort, 
grown on poor soil, and the large ones grown 
on rich soil, and the smaller ones will be the 
sweetest and best ; not but the starving 
system may be carried too far ; indeed, if the 
vine be starved too much, it will not ripen its 
fruit; but even the vine may be grown upon 
