152 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ Ftbrtiary 10, 130!. 
t’lat all the missus’ jams, &c., found claimants in London, luckily for 
them, as I quietly amused myself next day in seeing how the porters 
studied “ With Care : Top side up,” made glaringly conspicuous on the 
lid of my case. No one must ever dream that such instructions will be 
attended to, unless, &c., &c. 
Cider was my next alternative. A few Apples were passed through 
my turnip-cutter, but they offered thus too coarse a pulp. Jamming in a 
tub was out of the question. Said I to my wife, “The Dairy Show is on. 
I’ll run up to Islington and try whether I can discover anything that will 
smash up those Apples.” It was early in the morning of the second day 
of the Show. Without deigning to look at the cows I sprang up the stair¬ 
case leading to the gallery, and to behold at once confronting, as it struck 
me, a solitary largely developed sausage machine. A solitary man was 
there looking down into the cattle area. When he became aware of my 
presence he said, “ That’s a very good machine, sir.” “ Well, ye-e-as ; 
what name do you give it ? ” “A curd crushing machine.” “ 0, ah, the 
old fashioned way is to crumble the curds with one’s hands, and I can 
easily conceive how this will monopolise that proceeding; but what I 
want is a something that will pulp Apples tolerably vrell after they 
have been made to pass through a turnip-cutter.” This was a poser. 
He “ couldn’t say.” Another examination on my part, and—conclusion. 
“ It will take me about three hours to examine through the Show, and, 
if by that time you can manage to send this curd-crusher to the Pad¬ 
dington Station to await me there, I will purchase it at once.” A hitch ; 
he had “ only this one ” in the compartment. “ But your large 
Holborn firm must have got more than this in stock ? ” “Yes, they 
had.” “ Well then, either send this, and get another to replace it here 
at once, or have one sent from your shop. See 1 ” “ Yes he did.” By 
2 P.M. I was spinning away for Theale Station. Upon arrival at home 
my best bib-and-tucker was soon thrown off, and the curd-machine 
found to do its work, not so well as a cider mill, but if pulped the 
segments of fruit after their first manipulation, as above stated, well 
enough for my purpose. All my fruits since then are made to follow 
through this machine, and I have been enabled to snap my fingers in 
defiance at American Apples. Nevertheless, the shoe pinches unmerci¬ 
fully, now we find American fruit. Potatoes, bacon, butter, and one 
knows not what, come in to cut us out of our own local markets. 
There was a mistake in the note respecting the Apple jelly as made 
from the “ Pay-the-rentit should have been two jars out of the four 
w’ere taken from those made from Lane’s Prince Albert. The Prince 
Albert is the best for the purpose before it is ripe. It is such a great 
bearer that unless the fruit is thinned early the trees suffer. This 
ought especially to have been mentioned, for I have a profound respect 
for Prince Albert. My wife was born in Windsor Park ; her father was 
gardener to the Deputy Kanger for fifty-two years successively under 
Sir William Freemantle and the Hon. General Seymour, till he succeeded 
to the title as Marquis of Hertford. Her father as working under the 
Crown in the purlieus of the Park, his children became educated at the 
Queen’s School, where cooking and other branches relative to domestic 
affairs are inculcated. I need hardly perhaps mention here that the 
Prince Concert instituted and was President of the Royal Association. 
A framed and glazed certificated adorns the wall of my sanctum where 
I now write. It is emblazoned with the Royal arms, and states— 
“ Royal Association for improving the condition of Labourers and 
others. H.R.H. The Prince Consort, President. Presented to Eliza 
Temple, who received a prize of £1 at the General Meeting held at 
Windsor, the 26th day of June, 1858, for having kept her first place of 
service for a long period.— Albert. ’ 
“ His Royal Highness The Prince Consort, on presenting Eliza 
Temple with a prize of £1 for having kept her first place of service 
for a long period, told her she ought to be distinguished as she was the 
only girl educated at the Queen’s School who had received a prize.— 
(Signed) C. Okes, Governor of the Naval Knights of Windsor, June 
2Cth, 1858.” 
In the ways of Providence, what an eventful sovereign the above £1 
may be likened to 1 Eliza Temple came to Woodstock soon after the above 
event, the gift defraying her travelling expenses thither. I remember 
telling her to “ feel herself at home.” It is now 1891, and Eliza Fenn 
is making herself at home, as you have seen, amongst her jams, jellies, 
&c.; but who can tell besides her husband how many seedling Potatoes 
she has cooked and judged for the British public before the fiat was 
given, “ Go forth for commerce ?” You may, however, conclude from 
the above that we are loyal people at Cottage Farm. 
Now, as of a dream, other demonstrations become implied. About 
1859 I was rated, I believe, as fanatical, in insisting upon carting up to 
the R.H.S. meetings what I then thought improvements on varieties of 
Potatoes by natural selections of the best. I now know that it would 
be as easy to improve monkeys without tails as to prevent the natural 
selections, when left to themselves, from harking back to their types, 
rough as they originated. At about the above date the glove manu¬ 
facture was very prosperous at Woodstock. Journeymen went to and 
fro occasionally to New York and other places in America. One of them 
had Potato on the brain. He brought back with him some large black¬ 
skinned kidney Potatoes, a few of which he presented to me. Beyond 
than being an immense cropper I found it to be like most of our later 
productions coming from the “ Land of the Setting Sun, ’ big Potatoe?, 
and very little else to brag about. Rare Donald Beaton was too before, 
and at the above date, enthusiastically hybridising the Pelargonium. It 
came to me whether I could not artificially cross the Potato. I pr 3 - 
pared some blossoms of the old Red Regent, and introduced pollen to 
them from the American. The cross produced for me a profusion of 
seed, the seedlings from whic’n I took up to a South Kensington R.H.S. 
Committee in a shallow glazed box with partitions to contain the 
pretty little various coloured tubers. They “ brought down the house,” 
as Messrs. Laing, Paul, and many other gentlemen now living probably 
have not forgotten. Not one of those “ pretty ones ” proved upon 
further trials of sufficient good quality for me to offer to commerce. 
It led me on, however, to cross the old Fox's Seedling with the old 
Cambridge Kidney, &c., &c., &c., consecutively running over the gamut 
of our best old English sorts down to 1873, when I tackled some of the 
modern Americans, and improved their quality quite to my satisfaction. 
My name, I read too but lately, had been patronisedly written as 
being “ amongst the first hybridisers of the Potato.” I should be very 
sorry to find it in print anywhere that I have taken credit in any way 
for what is not my due. But if I was not the first to artificially cross 
Potatoes can you kindly inform my friends who was the premier ? The 
thing must have had a beginning, and whoever it was that hid the 
candle under a bushel it was their own fault. At any rate, from the 
day that I exhibited the above Anglo-American cross at South Kensing¬ 
ton the Po^'ato furore took its rise, and, more especially within the cycle 
of the last ten years, it has grown to such a hap-hazard system of 
crossing as to offer a fair prospect of spoiling the Potato for all pur¬ 
poses except size and prize money. Huge rounds, rhomboids, and 
parallelograms, of watery pulp, void of stamina, and doing positive- 
harm in regard to our national food. In flowers, size with beauty, and 
symmetry, is praiseworthy, and can do no harm ; but there is no high 
art or public benefit in creating by crossing large, to produce larger, 
inferior Potatoes, however polished their garb, if we are moved merely 
to get a prize, or grovelling to consider them as quickly capable for 
filling a sack. AVe do not want this sort of repetition for the million as. 
human sustenance.— Robert Fe!^n. 
(To be con’inued.) 
The Hybrid Perpetuals appear to have withstood the trying ordeal 
remarkably well. Standards on the Briar stock are the most liable to- 
be killed, and in all probability where they are extensively grown many 
losses will have to be made good. As to the wisdom of planting 
standard Roses under any circumstances not much can be said beyond 
remarking that opinions are somewhat divided as to their value, and 
every cultivator would perhaps best meet the case by growing both 
standards and dwarfs. The standards could be interspersed among the 
dwarfs, and if the former fail there will yet be the latter to keep up 
the supply. Long, exposed stems are the vital parts of Roses, and a 
covering of snow or rough litter is lost on them, but would prove 
effective among the dwarfs or bushes. When the latter are on their 
own roots they will survive and push up fresh shoots even if the tops 
are killed down to the snow line or to near the ground. Unfortunately, 
Roses on their own roots cannot be bought, and must therefore be 
raised. It is not too late to purchase and plant Hybrid Perpetual Roses, 
and the following would prove a varied, serviceable, and fairly hardy 
selection :—Alfred Colomb, A. K. Williams, Baroness Rothschild, Boule 
de Neige, Captain Christy, Charles Lefebvre, Countess of Oxford, Duke 
of Edinburgh, Dupuy Jamain, Etienne Levet, General Jacqueminot, 
John Hopper, Jules Margottin, La Franee, Madame Eugenie Verdier, 
Marie Baumann, Merveille de Lyon, and Ulrich Brunner. 
Tea axd Noisette Roses. 
These have badly eut, all not protected in any way being apparently 
damaged beyond hope of recovery. Even those against walls are much 
crippled, many being killed outright. These ought to be made good 
at once, or otherwise there will be many blanks and a scarcity of the 
choicest Roses to regret later on. Most probably the nurserymen have, 
contrived to save a good percentage of their stock, and Teas and 
Noisettes can also be had in po*s. For wall culture they greatly 
surpass the other sections, and many of the varieties are also admirably 
adapted for growing as bushes or standards. 
Some of the best for walls, pillars, and archways are Teas Catherine 
Mermet, Etoile de Lyon, Gloire de Dijon, Isabella Sprunt^^, Fra Capucine- 
(for buds), Madame Berard, Madame Lambard, Reine Marie Henriette, 
Safrano, Souvenir de Therese Levet, The Bride, and Climbing Devoni- 
ensis. The best Noisettes for a similar purpose are Celine Forestier, 
Jaune Desprez, Mar^chal Niel, Triomphe de Rennes, and W. A. Richard¬ 
son ; the last named being grown for its lovely buds. Teas suitable 
for growing in the open are Adam, Alba Rosea, Belle Lyonnaise, Boule 
d’Or, Comtesse de Nadaillac, Devoniensis, Hon. Edith Gifford, Madame 
Falcot, Madame Lambard, Madame de Watteville, Marie Van Houtte, 
and Souvenir de PaulNeyron. Hybrid Teas, Cheshunt Hybrid, Countess 
of Pembroke, Distinction, Grace Darling, and W. F. Bennett, may be 
grown either against the walls or in the open, and room in both 
positions ought always to be found for Bourbon Souvenir de la Mai- 
