214 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ September 7, 1893. 
which during ordinary seasons are quite unpalatable in an uncooked 
state are this year tempting enough for dessert purposes, and 
those which are generally considered the cream of dessert kinds 
have a flavour far superior to that they usually possess. I noticed 
this a few days ago when tasting several early Apples. 
Worcestershire Pearmain, I thought, the best of all Apples of 
the Codlin type, and is unusually good this season. The fruits, 
being large and of great depth, are wonderfully attractive in appear¬ 
ance. Lord Suffield is carrying prodigious crops in this neighbour¬ 
hood, but in many instances the trees canker badly. Stirling Castle 
is equally productive, but also suffers much from canker ; indeed, I 
invariably notice that trees which are remarkable for their good crop¬ 
ping qualities are the first to succumb to this troublesome disease. 
Lord Grosvenor seems to be rapidly replacing Lord Suffield in some 
districts, but hereabouts (Warwick) Manks Codlin will, I think, 
prove the best early cooking Apple to grow. It is a free and 
certain bearer, the beautiful golden colour of the fruit renders it 
more attractive in appearance than those cooking kinds above 
enumerated. In the gardens here the trees show no traces of 
canker. Ecklinville, Keswick Codlin, and Hawthornden have also 
very heavy crops ; the former variety grows more freely than the 
majority of early ones, and suffers but little from canker. The 
latter should be extensively grown for home use, as it is frequently 
preferred to other cooking kinds on account of its brisk and some¬ 
what sharp flavour. Colden Spire is a variety which I think ought 
to be more extensively planted. In appearance it is extra fine, crops 
well, and ripens a little later than Lord Suffield. I do not remember 
ever having previously seen such good crops of Warner’s King as I 
have met with this year. At the Castle Nursery Mr. J. Kitley 
recently showed me two large bush trees carrying grand specimens 
of this fine variety. A noteworthy fact in connection with them was 
that the branches were bearing freely quite in the centre of the 
trees, Mr. Kitley is a great believer in the practice of thinning the 
branches freely and leaving them unshortened, and he considers his 
success in Apple culture is in a great measure due to the fact 
that he adopts this method. Very heavy crops of Devonshire 
Quarrenden are this year prevalent around Warwick, and that 
favourite local variety Wyken Pippin is also abundant. Neither 
Cox’s Pomona nor Cox’s Orange Pippin (which with me usually 
crop well), is this year very productive. On the other hand, 
standard trees of Irish Peach, King of the Pippins, Worcester¬ 
shire Pearmain, and Kerry Pippin are loaded with fruits. 
At one time Apples of all kinds promised to be undersized, but 
since the late rains a wonderful improvement has taken place ; 
and considering the heavy crops the trees are carrying many 
of the fruits are remarkably large. These being ripened under the 
influence of brilliant sunshine are firm, sound, and good in colour, 
so that we may reasonably look forward to their keeping well. 
Considering how very early gathering has to be commenced this 
year it is well that the fruit can be stored in good condition. 
Every possible care ought also to be exercised in storing, so as 
to prolong the supply as much as possible. In seasons like the 
present one, when Apples are so plentiful, the fruit room proper 
will seldom accommodate the whole of the crop. The early varie¬ 
ties may then be conveniently stored in sheds and outhouses, in 
which positions they generally keep in good condition if placed in 
thin layers and kept cool and dark. 
It seems to me that too many early varieties have during recent 
years been planted, with the result that our markets are glutted 
with Apples, which must be disposed of because they will not 
keep. In a season like the present this is especially apparent. 
What we want is a greater bulk of such late-keeping kinds as 
Sturmer Pippin, Lane’s Prince Albert, and Northern Greening. 
It is scarcely possible to say too much in favour of the first of 
this trio, as it is a consistent cropper. The fruits will keep per¬ 
fectly sound and fresh till June, when it is good for both culinary 
and dessert purposes. I shall be much mistaken if the abundant 
yet early Apple crop of 1893 does not have the effect of causing 
fruit growers to devote more attention to very late kinds, with 
which I am sure they may successfully compete against those sent 
by our kinsmen in the Antipodes.— H. Dunkin. 
SOFT VERSUS HARD COLD WATER. 
It is seldom that I do otherwise than content myself by pondering 
over the pages of the Journal of Horticulture, reading the practical 
and interesting articles from the pens of so many good writers, in most 
cases sound and reliable authority ; so that in taking up my pen to 
defend one of my secret ideas, which in a recent issue your correspondent, 
“ W. P. W.,” has thought right to divulge, I may be pardoned for any 
slight misgivings that naturally arise in publicly accepting the respon¬ 
sibility of an “eccentric idea,” if such it can be proved. I am still 
under the impression that “ W. P. W.” has launched his boat upon a 
troubled sea, and will find it diflScult to steer a straight course to 
convince a practical gardener that “hard cold water” is little better than 
slow poison to vegetation in general. The nourishing qualities of 
“ hard cold water ” are rendered easily perceptible if constantly followed 
by watering plants either in pots or planted out. 
We will turn for a moment to the forcible query “W. P. W.” con¬ 
fronts us with—viz., “ What, I wonder, would the many persevering 
amateurs do whose plants never receive any except hard water?” If 
this statement means “hard cold water” direct from tap or pump, then 
my compassion for such plants is fully aroused, and my advice to those 
persevering earnest men who endeavour to keep vitality in their plants 
by such means is. Abandon the idea. My answer to “ W. P. W.’s ” 
query as to what those earnest amateurs would do is rather diificult to 
frame. What they ought to do is easily answered—viz., those who are 
living in towns, and have only “ hard cold water ” at command, ought, 
in the first place, to procure a tub or cistern, and fix outside fully 
exposed to the air, and in such a position to catch the full power of the 
sun’s rays for a few hours during the day. This will be found to act 
wonderfully upon the water. Nature, in this particular instance, 
teaches most indisputable lessons which no theoretical knowledge can 
d'spel. Is not vegetation in due season nourished with showers and 
warmth according to their wants—warm showers in summer, cold 
showers in winter? Therefore, those who are guided by Nature’s laws 
in respect to water that must be artificially used will reap the surest 
and greatest reward. 
I claim that water used within a few degrees, more or less, of the 
temperature of the soil to be moistened, is the truest guide to administer 
nourishment to plants. “ Hard cold water ” used constantly during the 
height of summer, produces a pale, stunted, sickly appearance upon 
vegetation in general, and so attracts insects and diseases which might 
otherwise be averted by timely thought and a little extra trouble, which 
would be doubly repaid. Such water is not only injurious when admitted 
to the roots of plants, but it is detrimental to the foliage if used for 
syringing during the summer. Take, for instance, a Peach tree infested 
with red spider. It is an impossibility to thoroughly eradicate this pest 
with “hard cold water,” yet by constantly using soft or rain water this 
troublesome insect can be mastered. 
In conclusion, allow me to assure “ W. P. W.” upon his closing 
remarks (page 168), that gardening with all its difficulties might be 
made far more enjoyable, especially during such a trying season as we 
have passed through, if gardeners and amateurs could but realise 
the value of soft water, or hard water rendered soft and warm, as a 
nourishing, health-producing stimulant to vegetation in place of the 
easily obtained obnoxious drug, “ hard cold water.” I now leave the 
subject in the hands and minds of readers of the Journal, and 
“W. P. W.” in particular, to prove by practical demonstration that 
my ideas are whimsical, and that I am deviating from established forms 
before I accept the term “ eccentric.”—F. Dunn. 
THE SPARROW QUESTION. 
With due respect to Mr. J. Witherspoon (page 177), the facts which 
I quoted (page 145) seem to test the strength of his faith to the utmost. 
Thus squeezed he becomes fierce, and tries vainly to overturn them. He 
may call us his opposers what he likes, “ selfish, short-sighted, wrathful, 
&c.,” because we do not love the ways of the sparrow. He may scorn¬ 
fully ignore and condemn the charges made against these destructive 
birds, but where is he going to stand while he thus throws dust into the 
eyes of truth ? I know he stands alone, for he fishes for recruits. He throws 
his hook and line across Mr. Editor’s path with a tempting bait of 
persuasion at the end of it, but this discreet gentleman quietly lets it 
float and does not bite. Like a defeated marshal on a battlefield Mr. 
Witherspoon stands alone, h'.s rakish regiments having been shattered, 
not by the ammunition of those “ good deeds,” but by the explosive 
power of those “little mistakes” (as he terms them) so apparent in the 
scoundrel sparrow. I consider your correspondent both unjust and 
inconsistent in his endeavour to defend these birds. 
Charge 1 (page 145), he submits (though very reluctantly) to be a 
learner and, as he says “ that he is rather inclined to think that the 
charge will be true.” 
Charge 2. He disbelieves that these birds are enemies to gardeners 
and fruit growers. He denounces the grand volume of the American 
Agricultural Keport as mere “ scraps,” throws it one side and puts his 
small, comparatively speaking, “ experience ” in its stead. Age does not 
always indicate the width of experience, and younger persons often 
possesses more experience than their elders in some things. 
Charge 3. He screens the sparrows with the feathers of hens, ducks, 
and blackbirds. We all know that Grape culture in our country is not 
carried on like that of America ; but this does not impugn the accuracy 
of the report. 
Charge 4. Here, “ J. W.” takes refuge in cities, and describes sparrows 
as “scavengers” which pick bones and clear away refuse ; but grain and 
fruit buds do not grow in cities for the scavengers to destroy. Perhaps 
suburban amateurs will describe the good (or harm) that sparrows do in 
their gardens. 
Charge 5. Here your correspondent modestly suggests that Miss 
Ormerod’s researches and overwhelming evidencv are nothing to his own 
“ experience.” Miss Ormerod’s evidence was gathered from a hundred 
sources ; Mr. Witherspoon’s, so far as we know, in one garden. Can he 
give the names of gardeners under whom he was trained, and who 
taught him his (unsupported) doctrine that sparrows do far more good 
than harm in the majority of gardens and fields?— Davies Duffbyn. 
