Koyember 30, 1893. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
489 
which has evidently been the case this year. Perhaps it would be of 
service to your readers if our large growers of fruit would state the kind 
of soil upon which their trees are grown, and also whether the fruits 
produced upon dry soil are keeping better than those grown upon that 
of a heavy wet nature.—S. H. 
A Good Cbop. 
Can you oblige me by giving the name of the Apple, of which I send 
you sample herewith ? A tree from which they were gathered is grow¬ 
ing in the garden of a neighbour of mine. It is an old standard of 
considerable spread of growth, and always bears well; but this year it 
has excelled itself in the production of over 19 cwt of fair sound fruit. 
Many of them are much larger than those sent, and they keep well until 
April and May, and cook splendidly. I trust this note may be of in¬ 
terest to you, and shall be glad to know if instances of single trees 
yielding a ton of fruit in a season are at all frequent.— Jno. Bateman, 
Highgate, N. 
[The Apple closely resembles Eymer, a useful culinary variety. 
Nearly a ton of sound fruit, sucb as the samples sent, from one tree is 
a remarkable crop of a good orchard Apple.] 
Apples Losing Flavour. 
Although much has been written on the best means of preserving 
Apples 1 have not recently observed anything upon the absorbing 
powers of materials employed in the packing of Apples. Lately I was 
cutting up a number of barrels in which Apples had been imported, the 
wood being of red and white pine. Some of these barrels had been 
exposed a long time to the influence of the weather. Yet the fragrance 
of the Apples was very pronounced, being greatest in the red pine, and 
the Apples in the barrels must have lost much of their flavour after they 
were gathered. 
My reply to “A. D.’s” query (page 465), “Has anyone ever tried the 
stacking of Apples in leaves outdoors 1 ” is that I have frequently come 
across Apples buried amongst leaves by boys or animals, quite fresh in 
spring, as were isolated ones beneath the natural fallen leaves, when 
Apples from the same trees, stored inside were not in the same sound 
condition. The hedgehog has sometimes collected heaps of Apples, and 
this autumn I found a large number of Pears in a heap beneath some 
Ferns, the animal perhaps instinctively knowing the decaying fronds 
would afford ample protection.—T. 
PRIMULA FORBESI. 
At the meeting of the Eoyal Horticultural Society on Tuesday, 
November 14th, much interest was centred on a basket of plants of 
Primula Forbesi, staged by Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., Burford Lodge, 
Dorking. The plants were covered with small lilac flowers, having 
yellow centres, the whole forming a pretty mass of bloom. P. Forbesi is 
a native of Yunnan, China, and was introduced in 1891, but apparently 
it is not yet included in other than choice collections. It may be termed 
a half-hardy species, thriving best in a greenhouse or frame, under the 
same conditions as P. obconica, and it usually flowers in November, 
The illustration (fig. 70), which indicates the character of this charming 
Primula, has been prepared from a sketch of the plants exhibited on the 
above occasion, and for which a first-class certificate was awarded. It 
is stated to be a biennial plant, and can be readily raised from seed. 
NOTES BY THE WAY. 
A Great Vegetable Grower and His Work. 
In a series of retrospective reflections it is impossible to avoid depress¬ 
ing contrasts. Winter thoughts or summer wanderings bring back 
many a pleasant scene. A beautiful spot is recalled in some country 
garden, and at once eyes are filled with summer sunshine and ears with 
the song of birds, for with the one recollection comes back a host of 
others closely associated with it. But a nor’ caster whistles around the 
windows, showers of sleet are driven against the panes, and bare soil 
instead of flowers rewards the outward glance. It is natural that the 
aesthetic soul should indulge in a sympathetic shiver and retire within 
itself, indulging in a kind of dormouse existence until the spring comes 
again. The contrast is too great to be realised without a sense of 
emptiness and depression, and so it is shrunk from and avoided. 
Gardeners as a body are by no means devoid of sensibility, or dead 
to every artistic influence, but for all that they do not usually share to 
any great extent in the feeling to which reference has just been made. 
The explanation, of course is, that although floral aspects play a part in 
a gardener’s work, and have no small share in his happiness, they do not 
fill his life. There are trees, for example, and these, as a writer has 
has said, are “ silent friends, remaining with us always.” A collection 
of fine Conifers, such as those referred to in my notes on page 464, is a 
source of perennial pleasure. They have not the charms when bending 
under ripping winds, and dripping with cold rain, that they possess in 
the spring time, but they are there, solid and visible, affording 
subject for admiration, conversation and discussion. Truly trees are 
friends, and if they are silent ones then all the more reason why we 
should blow their trumpet for them. 
And, again, if the flower beds and borders are empty the kitchen 
garden is not. The most advanced mathetic must eat, and surely there 
is much food for interest in comments and observations on vegetables. 
It is sheer affectation and pedantry to look down upon a Cabbage or a 
Parsnip just because it ministers to our physical wants instead of to our 
artistic ones. Let us be sensible and study both, then when the flowers have 
gone we can find consolation in the more practical aspects of gardening. 
Piobably there are not many cultivators]who will deny that there is as 
much interest, if not as much beauty, in a well stocked and well 
managed kitchen garden as there is in a series of flower beds. There is a 
variety of method and varying degrees of skill in the one just as there is 
in the other. In one garden a particular crop or variety does better than 
in another, and in one instance there is a good system of cropping and 
great productiveness, while in a second the plan of action is imperfect 
and the crops moderate or poor. 
Great vegetable growers are as much entitled to respect from the 
fraternity generally as, let us say, great Chrysanthemum growers, and 
their methods are as well worthy of study. They do not always get it 
so far as tie general public are concerned, for what casual visitor at a 
