Jufy -23, 1891. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
61 
table, especially for those who do not belong to the wealthy class. 
Mr. Fenn then stated that the wines I have referred to could be 
made to pay at a very low price per gallon. 
I feel strongly that a large paying industry may be created if 
this subject was taken up in earnest in various parts of the country 
and in a proper way. Thousands of tons of Rhubarb annually 
wasted could be utilised, and produce a pleasant drinking wine at 
■a very cheap rate, and especially when matured by a little age. 
Parsnips, again, make a delicious wine, so also do Gooseberries and 
other fruics ; and this year in many parts there will be a heavy 
■crop of Damsons, and Damson wine is a very pleasant beverage. 
There are many things that could be utilised—such, for instance, 
as Cowslip flowers, and wine from this flower needs no praise from 
me, from those who know what it is. 
Mr. Fenn uses Grapes, not at all necessarily ripe or near it, for 
his excellent wines ; and as it is now the fashion to encourage the 
cottager to grow fruit, Vines could be planted against many a 
cottage, selecting the hardier kinds at a cheap price, for growing fruit 
for wine-making purposes. With manufactories for making wines, 
and a system of collecting from the outlying districts, a great trade 
■could be created, and money put into the pockets of producers, 
while the public generally would be able to procure pure refreshing 
drinks, intoxicant only in a remote degree, and a thousand times 
preferable to very much of the manufactured beer of the present 
dray. 
The Baroness Burdett Coutts at the Mansion House meeting of 
the Fruiterers’ Company spoke of the improved knowledge required 
in the making of jam. Her words are words of import. In these 
days of manufactured butter, when real butter is entirely beyond 
the reach of families of the struggling class, and in large towns 
especially buy as butter a composition the origin of which is 
doubtful, good wholesome unadulterated jam at a low price 
would be an inestimable boon to thousands in every large 
town. There are already large makers of jam about the country, 
and Lord Sudeley’s people are making jams on an extensive 
scale, but there is ample room for more, and what is particularly 
needed is that our cottagers and working classes may be taught 
how to make these preserves with a view to their keeping for 
•winter use 
The bottling of fruits could also be taken in hand and useful 
information given to those in the rural districts as to how this 
should be done, and thus have in stock a supply of fruit for the 
winter. Sugar is so cheap now that preserving fruit in any form is 
not an expensive matter. 
I wonder if many of your readers have heard of, much less 
tasted, pickled Damsons ! I never did until three or four years 
since, and it was a new sensation in eating to me. Delicious is the 
word, and as Damsons in the midland districts are plentiful pickled 
Damsons will be in demand by my friends.—D. R. S. 
MIGNONETTE AS STANDARDS. 
As week by week goes by I am eagerly at work scanning and 
profiting by the contents of my favourite paper, the Journal, and 
one item of information I gathered from its pages bids fair to 
become a good success ; but I am in a little fog about the matter, 
and I am seeking for your kind assistance if you will please to afford 
it me. 
I refer to the splendid article on “ Mignonette as Standards” in your 
issue of May 21st of this year. The directions there given are that seed 
Should be sown about the 24th of May. That fell on Sunday this year, 
so I sowed mine on the 23rd. I do not get the Journal till Saturday, 
and I had two dozen small pots (2£-inch) sowed with Miles’ Spiral 
within two hour3 after I read the article. The seed germinated in 
twelve of the pots and in twelve it failed. As soon as roots showed 
through the drainage I shifted the plants into 4-inch pots. Now here 
comes my query. The article says, “ The plants are shifted into 4-inch 
pots, &c,” and then goes on to say, “ The plants are returned to the 
frame and kept there until the end of August.” Now does that mean 
that they are not to be put into the 7-inch pots it speaks of until 
the end of August ? because my plants will be hard root-bound long 
before that time, as the roots are now showing plentifully through 
the pots and the plants are pictures of health, 6 inches high, and a 
root-bound condition your correspondent speaks of as one to be “rigidly 
avoided.” 
Will you also please state if the side shoots are entirely removed 
would more side shoots spring after the topping? because they can only 
spring from the base of the leaves on the main stem, and if they are 
entirely removed would it not be equal in its effects to the removal of a 
bud from the base of a Gooseberry cutting—viz., that no other shoot or 
bud would spring therefrom ? If so, how about the production of side 
branches of which your correspondent speaks ? Does he mean their 
entire removal, or would it be better to pinch all side shoots to one 
leaf ? 
I do not quite understand the instructions for making the trellis. 
Does “ Practical ” mean that the trellis before it is put on shall be 
1 foot high or deep, whichever he likes to call it ? If the plant is kept 
to one stem till, say, it is 2 feet high and the trellis is only 1 foot, what 
does he do with the 1 foot above the trellis ? Does he bend it dowm, or 
how does he manipulate the affair ? 
Would you kindly say how many wires (which would correspond to 
the frame wires of an umbrella on which the material is sewn) should 
be used, and if any circular wires are placed on these ? In short, I should 
be pleased with instructions as to making one of this kind, as I have 
never made one, though I have made other shapes. 
I am afraid I am giving much trouble on this subject, but my 
employer is very fond of Mignonette, and likes to have it all the 
year round; therefore the matter is to me one of importance.— 
Anxious. 
[With the object of relieving the anxiety of our correspondent we 
placed his letter in the hands of the writer of the article referred to, and. 
the following is his reply:—“The germination of my Mignonette seed 
this year was much below the average. The plants should be shifted 
from 4-inch to the 7-inch pots when the former are full of roots 
independently of any fixed periods. Such details as these must be 
attended to on the spot, and as far as I am aware I do not give any hard 
and fast line as to when successional pottings should be carried out. 
Rigidly avoid having the plants root-bound in the earlier stages, or their 
growth will be checked, and continuously free growth is absolutely 
essential to success. The roots must be kept moving, even if an extra 
small shift is resorted to. 
“ The side shoots which spring from the main stem must be removed 
as often as they appear below the point where it is intended to lay the 
foundation for the future head, and this would be about 18 inches or 
2 feet from the top of the pot. For this length it is intended to have a 
clean tree-like stem, which would not be the case if side growths were 
allowed to extend even to one leaf from the maiD stem. It is only when 
the desired height or length of stem, as previous’y named, is obtained, 
that what I term side shoots are allowed to extend, and removing all 
side growths up the stem, confining the growth to one shoot, is the way 
to obtain the necessary height which will enable the plant to rank as a 
‘ standard.’ 
“Regarding the trellis, ‘Anxious’ misses the point. If, as he says, 
‘ the trellis is 1 foot high, what is to be done with the remaining 
foot of stem ? ’ Obviously it must appear above the top of the trellis. If 
a trellis 1 foot high were placed on the top of the pot the plant could 
not be a standard. What is meant is that the actual trellis is 1 foot 
high. To raise it to the point where the shoots branch, a stake 2 feet 
high from the top of the pot must be provided. The inside centre of 
the trellis rests on the top of the stake in true umbrella fashion. 
“ To have a trellis 1 foot deep, or high, whichever you choose call it, 
and 15 to 18 inches in diameter, one circular wire at the bottom is 
required ; to this about four wires are fastened, which bend over to give 
the stupe, and are secured on the opposite side to the circu’ar wire. This 
number would provide ample space whereon to train the shoots, because 
after the foundation is laid subsequent growths can be tied down to the 
main stems themselves. Therefore the number of wires is a matter of 
convenience to the cultivator. There cannot be any harm in fixing two 
additional circular wires at about 4 inches from the bottom wire ; these 
may be of a smaller size, ordinary knitting-needle size would do.” 
It is no trouble whatever, but a pleasure, to us to publish this infor¬ 
mation.] 
MR. FENN AT HOME AND THE MAGNUM BONUM 
POTATO. 
CHANCE had more to do with the raising of Magnum Bonum Potato 
than science. Mr. Clark wa9 fond of his garden, and be read the Cottage 
Gardener at the time I was initiating the public through its pages in 
the first crossing of Potatoes. Clark had then Paterson’s Victoria and 
the then newly imported American Rose growing in his garden. 
Eventually some fine ripe berries offered on the Victoria, and he tried 
his ’prentice hand by sowing the seed in the following spring. The 
season proved disastrous in regard to the disease, and whether the. raiser 
gave the seedlings up in disgust or failed to strictly observe them is now 
pist finding out. At any rate, the late Mr. Shirley Hibberd was poking 
about the New Forest and spied out s .me living Potatoes amongst the 
dead in Mr. Clarke's garden. The future growth of these seedlings in 
Mr. Hibberd’s experimental garden at Stoke Newington was satisfactory, 
their inspection by Mr. M. J. Sutton also satisfactory, and Mr. Clark 
was commissioned to grow them into “stock.” The vaiiety was named 
Magnum Bonum and distributed by the Reading firm. Thus ends the 
eventful history so far as I know. 
I believe I may have been a chief cause of inducing Mr. Clark to 
cross for some of the popular varieties that the Messrs. Suttons are now 
distributing. Thus 1 had occasion to visit a friend at Bournemouth. 
I accompanied our friend Mr. Jones on the way to Mr. Clark’s ground. 
He was growing seedlings from American crosses largely. From what I 
had experienced from th s description of interbreeding I tried to dissuade 
him fiom it. He was also crossing Woodstock Kidney with Paterson’s 
Victoria. This I did not approve of, as W. K. was weak in constitution, 
and so unfortunately subject to take the disease. “ Well then, what 
wou’d you advise ? ” he asked, and 1 answered, “ You must feel a greater 
interest in Magnum Bonum than any other Potato ; cross it with some 
good old English vaiiety such as Fox’s Seedling, the old Cambridge 
Kidney, &c., &c.” “How am I to get Fox’s Seedling?” Here Mr. 
