August 3. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
339 
another kind as well. Whole fields of Gooseberry, Cur¬ 
rant, Filbert, and other fruit-trees, require pruning as 
well as digging amongst, to say nothing of the gathering 
of the produce which is also, on favourable seasons, a 
work of some time. Now, having in other places detailed 
much of the culture which each important article receives 
here, I will, in the present case, confine my observations 
to the general appearance of the whole at the time I 
write, the 20th of July, with such rough notes on each 
as may appear required. 
In the first place, I may observe, that the season, 
which, by being dry and fine in March and April, 
promised to be early, has been followed by cold, dull, 
and showery weather the whole of May, June, and up 
to the middle of July, with only now and then intervals 
of fine bright weather; consequently, things are late, 
and that all-important produce, corn, is much behind 
the average of years. Barley (July 18th) only just 
colouring a little; while in 1850 some was cut here on ' 
the 10th of the same month. The Corn crops, however, 
look well on the whole, though not very heavy ; and 
Beans and Peas may bo regarded an average crop—the j 
superabundance of haulm preventing my calling these a i 
full or heavy crop; neither have they all escaped that 
little pest, the slug, which, by destroying the seed-plants 
in such numbers, has diminished the crop very much ; 
this is especially the case with Peas, and the showery j 
weather of the last two months has, of course, done all 
the mischief it can in producing weeds. Nevertheless, ' 
with all these drawbacks, the prospect of the corn 
growers around here are, on the whole, not unfavour¬ 
able ; but I must add that corn is not an important 
crop; in fact, it is often only made subservient to other ! 
objects ; many farmers consuming more corn than they 
grow in their horse, cattle, or sheep feeding ; still there 
is an interest connected with it which deserves notice, 
and calls for attention from all parties. 
The Hay crop of the past season has been of a varied 
character, and not only that on dry, sound ground can 
be called good, while that of the low, stiff lauds of the 
weald of Kent has been much under an average crop; 
but the custom of the neighbourhood is to allow it to 
stand much longer than is often done in other counties, 1 
that the more genial, growing weather we had at the 1 
end of June improved it very much ; still the crop fell 
short of that of last year, but much of it is in hand yet, j 
the weather for hay making purposes having been very 
indifferent for a long time; so that taking all things into j 
consideration, the hay-crop may be regarded as a medium j 
one only, much of it has been injured in the getting up. j 
Green crops, as Clover, Saintfoiu, Luceru, Tares, &c., j 
are but sparingly grown; and much of those that are so, i 
are cut and used in a green state; the same remark 
holds good towards them of being irregular. Clover, 
eertaiuly, was as good as usual, the fine weather in i 
March and April being, perhaps, of more consequence ; 
i to this plant than all the rest of the year. 
1 now come to what is often regarded as the more 
; important crops around here— the Fruit crop ; and the 
Hops I will leave till another opportunity, and commence 
with Apples, the most extensively used of any English 
fruit. AH accounts agree in representing them as 
anything but abundant; besides which, the trees are 
not in health, and what fruit thero is seems “ unkindly.” 
It will be remembered, that the blooming season with 
Apples was not so good as for the earlier fruits, yet no 
serious frosts of any amount occurred ; but the setting 
! in of dull, cold weather, chilled, if not paralysed, the 
! rising juices of the tree, so as in many instances to 
make some Apple Orchards, on cold, clayey soil, have 
quite an autumn appearance at the end of May; the 
leaves being mostly brown and withered, with scarce 
one free from disease. Orchards that escaped are far 
from plentiful; so that the Apple crop may, on the 
whole, he regarded as under an average one in quantity, 
and, to all appearances, much below that in quality, 
unless the season hereafter favour their growth more 
than is expected. I may observe, in reference to them, 
that but few of the early kinds are grown hero, except 
Ilau thonuleans and some one or two kinds, in small 
quantities, for early table purposes, as June-eating, Quar- 
renden, and some others; the bulk of the crop being of 
the better keeping qualities, and, as may be expected, 
certain places have their own peculiar sorts, which 
thrive and do better than others do; but, in a general 
way, it may be affirmed that the old favourites are wear¬ 
ing fast out, and even among those of more modern 
introduction there are unmistakeable tokens of decay. 
Hawthorruleans, for instance, refuse to grow in many 
places, save as spotted, knarled, unkindly fruit. But 
some of the more enterprising fruit-growers are intro¬ 
ducing newer kinds, and it is to be hoped with success. 
But one bar in the way of improvement that way, is 
the tenacity with which the public at large cling to old 
favourites; the demand for liihslon Pippins being, 
perhaps, increased when it is no longer possible to grow 
them profitably; and an Apple having a new name, 
however good it may he, is always received with sus¬ 
picion by the buying public. These things operating on 
the grower, necessarily check his energy in the way of 
introducing new varieties, while he finds it almost im¬ 
possible to throw anything like permanent vigour into 
the old. Nevertheless, there are some enterprising 
characters who lead the way in both respects, and are 
justly looked upon as guides in the matter. 
Pears may be regarded as a fair average crop; in 
places, in fact, good. Plums are also plentiful, and 
Cherries have been so. Small fruits various; but 1 
must leave the details of them for another week, together 
with remarks on other crops, but may mention that up 
to the present the Potatoes are either wholly healthy or 
but very slightly attacked with disease.—J. Robson, 
“REPENT, OR PERISH.” 
By the Authoress of “ My Flowers.'' 
Tiie acceptance which sketches of real life have found 
with the indulgent readers of The Cottage Gardener, 
induces me to adopt the suggestion of the Editor, and to 
give the outline, with occasional quotations from the narrative 
itself, of the history of one who in a humble station lived 
an exalted life, and sets a bright and precious example to 
all classes to choose the better part which cannot be taken 
from them. 
An Israelite Indeed, is the name of the small but invalua¬ 
ble little volume sent forth by a writer whose pure and 
Apostolic faith no reader can suspect or gainsay who pe¬ 
ruses it; and as many of my humbler friends may not be 
likely to obtain a sight of it, I am sure I shall gratify them, 
and extend the knowledge of “ the truth as it is in Jesus,” 
by giving them extracts, and a general view of this remarka¬ 
ble instance of God’s sovereign grace and effectual calling. 
John Henry was a native of the county Tyrone in our 
dear sister country, Ireland, where an amazing work of God 
has for years past been carrying on. He was lowly by birth, 
yet very respectable. His father farmed a small portion of 
Lord Castlestewart’s estate, and having a large family, was 
obliged to labour diligently to maintain them, and brought 
up his sons to labour too, as soon as childhood would 
permit. A very scanty amount of education could be ob¬ 
tained where they resided, and reading, writing, and arith 
metic formed the simple, but (in my opinion) sufficient 
branches of knowledge for one whose hands were to gain 
his daily bread; and the rudiments alone of these were all 
he could acquix-e. But he was learning the rudiments, and 
more than the rudiments of a knowledge for which St. Paul 
counted all other things but “ loss" and “ dung simple and 
uninstructed as he might be, the spirit of God was striving 
with him, and convincing him “ of sin,” the first great aixd 
