October 21. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENEE. 
39 
Some very peculiar changes of a chemical character are 
well-known to be requisite, and to take place, unless 
arrested during the ripening process; the chief arrest 
being, we imagine, occasioned by sudden and injurious 
dejiressions of temperature. Some of our best pears 
will become, under such circumstances, like petrifac¬ 
tions, and totally insipid. What has been termed “ blet- 
ting,” that is a sweet-tasted decay, as in the Medlar, 
is probably thus caused, and, indeed, other evils; 
this at once points to the propriety of being enabled to 
remove them, when necessary, to a room where a tem¬ 
perature of 50° to 60° can be sustained at any time. 
Now, we should scarcely think it necessary to fix a 
heating apparatus in the general store-room; there 
should be a special room for this purpose in all gardens 
of any consideration. The grudging little outlays for 
this purpose belongs, we would hope, to bygone days; 
for the apothegm “ what is worth doing, is worth 
doing well,” gathers strength every day, and has long 
since invaded the jirecincts of the garden. In planning 
new fruit-rooms, we would, from a door at one end of 
the store-room, enter a little snug box, having a heating 
appai’atus of hot water, the boiler outside, and the 
interior fitted with a few shelves on one side, and a few 
receptacles, or nests for shelves, on the othei’, with a 
small bench for operations. These shelves would be 
useful in containing those fruits which, at all periods 
require a higher temperature, as, indeed, all fruits for 
immediate consumption would do unless quite ripe. 
The nests, or receptacles, should be a counterpart of a 
similar set in the general store-room; and these two 
rooms would have to exchange fruits very frequently : 
those ripe and to be retarded moved from the warm 
room to the cold one, and vice versa. We are here, as 
in duty bound, setting forth a somewhat high course of 
practice; not high through complicated machinery or 
mighty expense, but involving a little trouble, atten¬ 
tion—perseverance, if you will. Those who can afford 
to do such things, and who turn back in dread, we must 
pass by for the present. It is no part of the duties of 
those who attempt to advise in these times to affect a very 
low standard, carrying a specious appearance of economy 
outside, but penny wise and pound foolish within. We 
are aware that not all small gardeners can do these 
things; still it is well to lead even these to a considera¬ 
tion of principles, and of the ultimatum to which every¬ 
thing in the present condition of society has a tendency. 
To resume, then, the course of the subject; having 
spoken of the warm or ripening room, let us think of the 
character of the general store-room. This, of course, 
should be much more capacious; whatever the size of 
the establishment, we should say as six to two. Here 
would be permanent shelves for those ordinary kitchen 
apples, common pears, &c., which, once housed, would 
not require to bo removed. On the other hand, there 
might be sets of dr.awers, or trays, of a moveable cha¬ 
racter, exactly fitting the set of nests or receptacles 
before described in the warm room, so that one or more 
might be moved at any time with facility. Thus, then, 
to put a case: we will say this October the 4th we want 
to retard some Delice d’Hardenpont pears, and to hasten 
some Marie Louise; we will then take No. 1 in the warm 
room, containing the Delice, to No. 1 in cool room, con¬ 
taining some Marie Louise, and “ ring the changes.” 
Again, No. 15 in warm room is a tray of greengages 
from a north wall, now perfectly mellow ; they must be 
“ cooled down.” Let us exchange them for No. 8 tray 
in the cool room, which contains Ribston Pippins, and 
which will be required in a mellow state for some large 
parties, who are pheasant shooting in the middle of the 
month. As before observed, these trays must be made 
to fit the respective uests with ease; this done, the 
transit is accomplished without the least detriment to 
the fruit. 
About the modes of heating, &c., we have not space 
for an observation; such may stand over to the long 
winter evenings, which approach with giant strides. 
We pass on to the hygi-ometric conditions, our second 
postulate, the amount of moisture permissible or de¬ 
sirable in the air of the fruit-room. This is a somewhat i 
puzzling part of the question, inasmuch as authorities ; 
of high standing, and too respectable to be totally set 
aside, may be found, who throw their bias sometimes 
into one scale, sometimes into the other. There can be 
little doubt, we think, that the epidermis (skin) in fruits 
acts by transpiration, and that such transpirations is, in 
a degree, aiTested by a somewhat damp condition of air; 
albeit, as we think, at the expense of flavour and mel¬ 
lowness in fruits. However, in this matter, we ought 
to distinguish carefully; to keep late apples from 
shrivelling, and to preserve such things as delicate¬ 
skinned pears, plums, melons, cherries, &c., are two 
vei'y different affairs. 
With regard to the varying conditions necessary, and 
the crisis which occurs from the gathering of the fruit 
to its consumption, much may be said. Mr. Knight, of 
Downton, made the following remarks :—“ Fruits which 
have been grown on standard trees in climates suffi¬ 
ciently warm and favourable to bring them to maturity, 
are generally more firm in their texture and more sac¬ 
charine, and, therefore, more capable of being long 
preserved sound than such as have been produced by 
wall trees; and a dry and warm atmosphere also ope- i 
rates very favourably to the preservation of fruits under 
certain circumstances, but, under other circumstances, 
very injuriously; for the action of those elective attrac¬ 
tions which occasion the decay and decomposition of 
fruits, is suspended by the operation of different causes 
in different fruits, and even in the same fruit in different 
states of maturity. When a gi-ape is growing upon the 
vine, and until it has attained perfect maturity, it is 
obviously a living body, and its preservation is depend¬ 
ent upon the powers of life; but when the same fruit is 
sometimes past its state of perfect maturity, and has 
begun to shrivel, the powers of life are no longer, or, 
at most, very feeble in action, and the fruit appears then 
to be preserved by the combined operation of its cellular 
texture, the antiseptic powers of the saccharine sub¬ 
stances it contains, and by the exclusion of air by the 
external skin, for if that be destroyed it immediately 
perishes. If longer retained in a dry and warm tempe¬ 
rature, the grape becomes gradually converted into a 
raisin, and its component parts are then only held in 
combination by the ordinary laws of chemistry.” Thus 
far Mr. Knight, whose observations went as far in these 
matters as any man, backed, at the same time, by the 
most extensive amount of physical knowledge. Now, 
we have capital illustrations of the soundness of at 
least one part of Mr. Knight’s theory, especially in the 
Marie Louise pear. This we have growing in all forms—■ 
on table trellises, the ordinary espalier, the pyramid, 
and on east and west aspects, and a noble crop we have. 
Those on a west aspect have a skin like wax-work; 
those on the pyramid or table trellis, and exposed to 
every blast, have a russet coating; and those on the 
east aspect, about intermediate. Now, this has been 
the case for several years; every year has produced the 
same results. And what as to flavour and keeping pro- i 
parties? Why, as might be fairly anticipated, just cor- ' 
responding with the character of the coating, or nearly j 
so. To he nice over such points, however, there is a > 
very peculiar difference between them on the palate, ! 
and, for our own part, we can scarcely tell which to 
covet; our worthy employer, however, who is as keen a j 
judge as most gentlemen, and has a most extensive 
knowledge of fruits, seems always to prefer those with 
waxy skin, from the western aspects; and, indeed, they 
are larger, perhaps more melting, finer in texture, but ; 
