January S6, 186S. j 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
59 
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GARDEN PRODUCE. 
SIZE V. QUALITY. 
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N O, Mr. “ Spectator,"’ I will not take the text you have selected 
for me, hut will take one from your own book—“ Many if not 
most gardeners grow the produce of gardens too big by half.” The 
charge of mine to which I am referred for a text w'as preferred 
more against the public taste for things merely largo ; his charge is 
against gardeners for making an ideal of large productions instead 
of finer qualities. This charge may have a double meaning, or 
may be interpreted in two different ways. Either your correspon¬ 
dent means that we grow certain varieties of fruits and vegetables 
over-luxuriantly, or that we select the largest varieties and reject 
the smaller, or it may embody both these assertions. Perhaps he is 
correct. In many cases he may have hit the mark correctly. 
Beyond all doubt size in the vegetable and animal kingdoms has 
.an imposing, and it may be said a captivating, effect on many minds. 
More particularly is this the case in regard to such objects as become 
the special care of the cultivator and feeder, who naturally enough 
likes to see and cultivate things that are given to develope into all 
the .sizes they are capable of. Fostered by public demand, exhibi¬ 
tions, and commercial success, beyond all question size in fruits and 
vegetables, instead of cjuality, and at the expense of it, has been 
too much the aim. In the markets of our great consuming centres 
size and appearance bring much better prices than the highest order 
of quality weight for weight. This of necessity compels the 
grower for market to go in for size if he is to hold his owm in the 
scramble for existence—a fact that does not say much for refinement 
of taste on the part of consumers. 
Anyone who in October prefers to give, say, 3s. fid. per lb. for 
Gros Colm.an Grapes, and will not buy fine Black Hamburghs when 
to be had for 2s. (id. or 2s. per lb., is surely to be pitied either for 
the poverty of his baste or for his ignorance. Gros Colman, espe¬ 
cially at the time named, is not in the running with the Blai:k 
Hamburgh for ad that is fine in quality, yet this fine old Grape and 
all other first-rate blacks are being fast driven out of the markets 
by Gros Colman. The latter when grown in high Muscat tempera¬ 
ture and allowed to hang on the Vines till January, or, better still, 
February, is a good and pleasant Grape, but not equal in flavour to 
thoroughly ripened Lady Downe’s at the same date, yet in the 
markets Gros Colman brings nearly double the price realised for 
the more modest-looking Lady. This craving for mere size and 
show' leads me almast to exclaim in irony, “ Where ignorance is 
bliss ’tis folly to be wise.” In this matter the evil is not by any 
means confined to market growers and buyers. There have been 
far too many of the coarse sorts planted and grown by gentlemen’s 
gardeners for nothing else than for the size to which either the 
berries or bunches attain. Horticultural societies have fostered 
and aggravated this malady by offering handsome prizes for mere 
weight and for collections of eight to twelve sorts of Grapes. Xo 
doubt this has been done to please the public oj e, but it is not a 
sound education. Hence there is to be met with far too much 
space little better than w'asted in the production of tasteless 
monsters, while the smaller and finer sorts have been in many cases 
all but hustled out of numbers of vineries. It has been no uncom¬ 
mon sight to see such as Raisin de Calabre, S 5 Trian, and Gros 
Guillaume, and similar sorts planted and trained 5 to G feet apart, 
and allowed to carry a very few bunches each, simply for the sake 
of producing an abnormally large bunch or tw'O to figure in a col¬ 
lection or get a prize for weight and guU the public, and it is feared 
No. 39o.—VoL. XVI., Third Series. 
in some cases the J udges too. More than double the weight of 
Muscats, Hamburghs, and Lady Downe's, and other good sorts 
could have been produced in the sp.ice thus little better than 
wasted. 
Not long since a writer—if I remember correctly in these pages 
—had the hardihood to put forward Gros Maroc as a formidable 
rival in quality to the grand old Black Hamburgh. My judgment 
is sadly deficient if this Grape has a single quality except colour and 
size that brings it within miles, .so to speak, of Black Hamburgh, 
and it is almost a sin to name it as a rival anywhere in any way 
except on the market stall, and to get Gd. or Is. more per lb. 
The same may be said of Cooper’s Black, which, if not identical 
with Gros Maroc, is very like it. Both, it must be granted, are 
beautiful to look at, and that is about all that can be said for them. 
The large-bunch-producing whites stand in the same relation as to 
merit to Muscat of Alexandria and others of that type as the 
large blacks do to Black Hamburgh, and it is a pity that horti¬ 
cultural societies have not the courage to check the growth of such 
coarse sorts from gentlemen’s gardens. Here is a work for the 
Royal to take up that is surely worthy of ,it. After all the test of 
skill does not lie in the direction of coarse monsters. Muscats and 
Black Hamburghs and a few others are the real tests of skilful 
culture. The whole thing is a mistake. Let our fine varieties be 
grown to their largest size in bunch and berry, and no great fault 
need be found with the result. But even in their case moderate 
sized bunches are far and away the more useful for family service, 
a greater number of medium bunches being preferable to a lesser 
number of larger ones. 
Before quitting the subject of Grapes I would say that in keep¬ 
ing Grapes for my own taste or that of a particular employer I 
would avoid cutting and bottling them. This system is much 
practised now. No doubt it is a convenient one, but that is all that 
can be said in its favour. The extent to which Grapes lose flavour 
under it is enough to condemn it root and branch. The effect 
produced is very much like what the Flighlander considers is pro¬ 
duced in his whisky by adding cold w'ater to it. The advocacy in 
some quarters of ripening Grapes in a low' temperature is another 
method of spoiling good Grapes—aye, and Vines too. If a Grape 
is wanted of high quality and to keep well let the temperature be 
high, within certain limits, of course, to the finish in conjunction 
with a circulation of air. Such treatment produces a Grape 
entirely different in texture and in flavour, and as a consequence 
in keeping qualities. 
The Grape has been thus dwelt upon, because what in this 
question of mere size is applicable to it applies to most of the pro¬ 
ducts of our gardens. The mistaken craze for size and appearance 
is carried too f.ar. Tliis refers to nearly all other fruits—Melons, 
Pines, Peaches, Figs, Apples, Pears, Gooseberries, Strawberries, 
Ac., the smaller varieties of which are, as a rule, the best, and 
where there is an excejdion it only proves the rule. It applies not 
altogether to large sorts, but to abnormally large examples of 
smaller sorts. I w'as very much struck this winter in comparing 
the flavour of some very large Apples with that of medium-sized 
ones of the same sorts that were grown tw’O or three hundred miles 
further north. The latter had the much belter flavour, were more 
solid and crisp. The more spongy' texture of the very large ones 
was very conspicuous. The difference was as striking as that be¬ 
tween the Chesterton yellow Turnip and the Aberdeen short top 
yellow. The former is what we in the north call “ bosse ” or 
*• fosey,” while the latter, though less bulky, is far more solid and 
heavy, and of course better. Speaking of these Turnips, I saw at 
an agricultural show in September the first prize awarded to the 
Chesterton, while Aberdeens were placed second on no other 
ground than a point or two of size. On being cut open the 
absurdity was patent to all. As well place a west Higliland ox 
second to a shorthorn for quality of beef. 
There is much to justify the remarks not only regarding Brussels 
No. 2052.—VoL. LXXVUI., Old Series. 
