124 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
November 17. 
move than “mortal” if they do not sometimes err, there 
being no mechanical means of measuring the merits 
and demerits of the various productions submitted to 
the ordeal of judgment—the human taste alone must 
settle this point. 
I would ask any set of judges who have had expe¬ 
rience in awarding prizes, at our country horticultural 
shows, for that infinity of fruits which is usually present 
at a September meeting, if they can retire with the 
conviction that they are sure they have given their 
awards to the best-flavoured articles ? I have no doubt 
but they gave them to what they behoved to be the best 
tasted; but when that organ is used to excess, as it must 
be on such occasions as those I mention, it can no 
longer retain its keenness and perception. I mention 
this, not from my own individual opinion, but from the 
recorded evidence of all those I have conversed with. 
I ask, then, is it fair, on the part of an indignant public, 
to condemn anew and but imperfectly-tried fruit; while, 
on the other hand, it is equally reprehensible for those 
who recommended them to uphold them still, against 
the combined opinion of judges equally qualified as 
themselves. In the latter case, an acknowledgment of 
error would be more graceful, because it is well known 
that some other fruits, whose merits they described, 
turned out all that could be desired. Thus, for example, 
the British Queen Strawberry, when well grown, is all 
that can be desired, and its wayward propensity to die 
off, &c., on soils unsuited to it, could not bo known to 
those who first issued it. 
Leaving this subject, however, might I ask if the 
addition made to our fruit lists be at all in proportion 
to the losses we have sustained by varieties becoming 
no longer healthy and vigorous as before ? I confess 
appearances are sadly against us in this respect. Let 
us, for instance, examine our catalogue of Peach and 
other tender fruits, and see what addition has been 
made to them in the last twenty years, or more. Nay, 
even go back as far as the beginning of the present 
century, and see if the lists then issued by the leading 
houses in the trade did not contain almost all the kinds 
in general cultivation at the present time, and a great 
many more now obsolete, or rather lost to cultivation. 
When we compare this state of things with the almost 
infinite varieties into which our floricultural productions 
have been multiplied, the startling fact must convince 
every one that fruit growers, as a body, have been sadly 
remiss in their endeavours to improve, or even retain, 
the varieties of fruits they have, in other respects, taken 
so much pains to cultivate. Let us take the Grape, 
and we see that Speedily enumerated about 120 varie¬ 
ties as being in cultivation at Welbeck, and although 
his successor cut down the list to fifty, by discarding 
worthless ones and repetitions, still we doubt much 
whether fifty kinds can be found at any private place at 
the present day. I am aware, that the taste and dis¬ 
crimination of the public will be urged as a reason why 
only some few really good sorts are cultivated at the pre¬ 
sent time. This line of argument I fully admit, and pro¬ 
bably with the Grape it may not be attended with any 
after loss, for new kinds (or what are said to be new) are 
occasionally added to our stock, so that we apprehend 
little harm from the loss of old ones. But then, take 
another useful fruit, the Apricot—and I might almost 
have added the Peach and Nectarine, too, but will con¬ 
fine myself to the first-named—and see what we have 
done in respect to it. I confess not being aware of a single 
addition, worthy of notice, being made to this useful fruit 
for the last forty years, and, assuredly, the kinds then 
grown are no longer the useful good fruits they were at 
that time. The constitutional decay of all varieties per¬ 
petuated by buds or grafts is now a recognised law in 
the horticultural code; consequently, the Apricot must 
be verging fast into that condition which refuses any 
longer to flourish, from the same causes which have 
banished the favourite Apples of olden times from the 
orchards they were wont to thrive so well in. Now, I 
only ask those who have had the care of Apricot trees 
for some quarter-of-a-century or so, if their memory 
does not favour the belief, that better fruit was produced, ' 
in their younger days, than is now usually done ; and 
have not the trees continued to exhibit an increased 
tendency to die off, not piece-meal, but in large lumps 
at a time; so that but few trees of twenty years old 
and upwards exist now, without presenting the mutila¬ 
tion I speak of? I mean, that there are really fewer 
old trees in a healthy bearing condition, a.t the present 
time, than there were twenty years ago, taking, of course, 
into consideration the increased number now grown. 
There are few fruits more really useful than the Apricot, 
and there are few cases in which a healthy set of trees : 
continue to bear with that degree of certainty with i 
which Peaches, &c., may be depended on; and, as I say, 
the liability of the tree to throw off a limb is much , 
more so now than formerly; and though it would be 
more than most people would do to attribute this to any 
one cause, yet 1 have no hesitation in hazarding an 
opinion, that it is owing to the want of new varieties. As 
our Moorpark, Breda, Orange, and Brussels, though 
doubtless good in their day, have performed duty so 
long, they might, in perfect accordance with the wise 
intentions of nature, delegate to their offspring the 
task of prolonging their usefulness, if not improving it 
also. Now, the seedling varieties, which alone deserve 
the name of offspring, are nowhere to be found; so that 
we are forced to continue planting kinds which, after 
thriving a few years, and occupying a position as well- j 
trained trees against our walls, disappoint us by dying ! 
oft' in proportions of something like one-third of a 
tree at a time. 
I am aware there are places where this is less com¬ 
mon than at others ; yet 1 affirm that it is everywhere 
more frequent than of yore. I might add much more 
on this head, and might even include other fruits as 
well as the Apricot, but I trust I have said enough to 
call the attention of fruit-growers to the fact of their 
mistake in not furnishing us with healthy varieties of 
this and some other fruits, whereby we might hope to 
see the evils we now suffer from removed, and that 
seemingly sudden paralysation of such considerable 
portions of our Apricot trees no longer common, and 
gum, canker, and other sources of decay, which may 
often be traced to a constitutional source, disappear 
from amongst us. J. Robson. 
PRESERVATION AND STORING OF ROOTS. 
The preservation and storing of root-crops must be 
considered a subject next in importance to that of their 
culture, inasmuch as it is now becoming advantageous 
to grow a larger quantity, and more extended breadth, 
of those roots which require peculiar management to 
preserve them during the winter months, such as Man¬ 
gold Wurtzel and Carrots. This arises partly from the 
necessity of substituting these roots for the Turnip aud 
Swede, so as to avoid the evils which their too frequent 
repetition occasions, and partly to the increased demand 
for roots as food for sheep and beasts during the spring 
and summer months. 
The sort of stock for which roots are required, neces¬ 
sitates a modification in the mode of management, in 
order that they may be preserved in a state perfectly 
