October 16. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
33 
It may now, perhaps, be well to offer select lists of 
some kinds which we think offer superior chances for 
improving our breeds. 
Dessert Kinds. —No. 1, Early Margaret; 2, Early 
Harvest; 3, Kerry Pippin; 4, Golden Reinette; 5, 
Wormsley Pippin; 6, Ribstone Pippin; 7, Golden 
Harvey; 8, Hughes’ Golden Pippin ; 9, Hicks’Fancy; 
10, Pitmaston Nonpareil; 11, Stunner Pippin; 12, Old 
Nonpareil; 13, Downton Nonpareil; 14, Ord Apple; 
15, Braddick’s Nonpareil; 16, Gravenstein; 17, Lamb 
Abbey Pearmain; 18, Boston Russet. 
On looking over this list, we find Nos. 9, 13, 14, 15, 
16, presenting smartness of flavour, combined, in the 
main, with delicacy of texture; these, therefore, should 
be very eligible for a cross on the one side. Also, Nos. 
3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 17, 18, possessing depth of flavour, with 
saccharine principles, yet several of them capable of 
improvement in point of mellowness of flesh, with the 
addition of smartness. 
This, then, is an idea thrown out “ in the rough,” and 
we do not doubt that a little perseverance for a few 
years would produce such a collection of improved 
apples for table purposes as would astonish even the 
breeders themselves, combining every perfection, viz., 
high flavour, juiciness, tenderness of flesh, together 
with keeping and bearing properties. It is, of course, 
too late now to talk of hybridizing, the season is entirely 
gone as to that; but let no one who has leisure be 
daunted from trying his hand at some seedlings from 
the best materials in his room. When the day comes, 
an opportunity will at least be afforded of contrasting 
the results from the natural and the artificial produce. 
Besides, as before observed, what nice stocks these 
seedlings make; and as to seedling apples, why, if any 
person has too many, he may incorporate them with 
quick in his hedges, or mend existing gaps with them. 
Let a shoot here and there arise from the hedge, and 
become a little tree, and it will at least possess one of 
two merits: either it will be so crabby that unlucky 
lads who come to taste will scarcely come a second time, 
or, if good, will be of use in culinary affairs. 
Those who are disposed to try their hand this way 
may wash the seed from the pulp as soon as the fruit 
becomes tolerably mellow, and, being dried, it may be 
kept in garden-pots, in dry sand, until the beginning of 
February, when it may be sown either in pots, in a warm 
house or hotbed, or out of doors. The former plan, 
done justice to, will gain a year; and by the latter, care 
must be taken that Mr. Mouse does not defeat the in¬ 
tention of the expectant sower. 
We intend to pursue this subject before the blossom¬ 
ing period, and to point to eligibilities in our other 
fruits. R. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
There are so many ways of •preserving plants through 
the winter , under difficulties, that we might call it an 
art of itself; and if we could collect the history of each 
way, with its success and failures, we could easily draw 
up general rules, which would be just as useful to us 
gardeners as to the humblest reader of these pages. 
With all our experience, gardeners are not the best 
guides to follow, nor the surest writers in this very 
necessary business. We are so accustomed to glass and 
fire-heat, that w r e can hardly rid ourselves of the idea of 
security in all cases. The utmost we are called upon in 
the way of keeping our stock of plants from the frost is 
by means of cold frames and outhouses, or warm sheds. 
In these we can keep all our strong-growing Gera¬ 
niums, our old Fuchsias and Salvias, and a few other 
things of a like nature; while our Verbenas, Petunias, 
and all the small delicate things, are secured by 
means of glass and artificial heat. Now, would it 
not be a good plan to call on such of our readers as 
have not such conveniences at hand, nor the means 
of supplying them, to send us reports of their ways of 
management for the last three or four winters ? Saying 
how many plants of this or that kind they stored; how 
many they lost or saved out of the number; and how 
they mean to proceed this winter. The experience ot 
a few winters must have suggested different modes to 
thousands ; and there may be a score or a hundred ways 
of doing the same thing under different circumstances. 
All this collected together, read, criticised, and read 
again, would, in its turn, suggest different ways, from 
which every section of the community—gardeners and 
all—might learn some useful hints to suit particular 
circumstances. 
The simplest and most successful way of keeping 
strong or full-grown Geraniums, that 1 am aware of, is 
that which 1 mentioned last week—preserving them 
in the beds till the middle or end of December, after 
cutting off one-half of their young shoots in October, 
and the other half about the time they arc taken up, 
then keeping their roots in a half-moist state in boxes, 
and getting them out as early as possible in the spring; 
not later, under any circumstances, than the beginning 
of April. All this 1 have proved over and over again, 
and I have often seen the bad effects of keeping them 
later in their winter stores; indeed, there is often more 
harm done by keeping them in confinement after they 
begin to grow in the spring than by the damp and frost 
of the whole winter; and nothing is so bad as getting 
them in too early in the autumn before they are stopped 
in their growth. 
Tigridias should never be taken out of the ground, in 
this climate, before the end of December, for the same 
reason, the bulbs not being ripe sooner, therefore not 
quite at rest, although their leaves may be damaged by 
early frost. It would be good practice to screen their 
leaves from the frost as long as one could, and then to 
cover the beds with something as long as the roots are 
left in the ground. 
Covering beds, in which half-hardy things are left, 
stands much in need of improvement. Unless they are 
covered with coal-ashes, the usual process is to lay on 
leaves, straw, moss, or ferns, and the first layer of either 
next the earth soon turns mouldy, and begius to rot, 
causing the soil to turn to that state called livery by one 
of our correspondents—the very w r orst condition for the 
preservation of half-hardy things in it. To get over 
this difficulty, even on our dry soils, I have used a close 
layer of the small ends of pea-sticks or other brushwood 
in a dry state, so as to keep the leaves, or other covering, 
from touching the soil, but taking care that the sides 
were well packed so that the frosty winds could not play 
in among the sticks. Another improvement would be 
to open three or four small passages at equal distances 
round the bed, when the wind or the weather was favour¬ 
able, for the purpose of letting out, or driving out, the 
foul air from under the covering, and to close the pas¬ 
sages with a handful of moss, or any thing else, when 
the hard frosts returned. But, like putting the cart 
before the horse, the first and best part of the story is 
this ;—As soon as the frost hurts the leaves and stems 
of the finer Fuchsias, Salvias, Cupheas, Calceolarias, and 
Heliotropes —for I would give them also a chance—or 
any other half-hardy plants that make good root-stocks, 
or strong necks, or collars, from which buds would push 
in the spring, cut them down to within a few inches of 
the ground; then scrape off an inch or more of the 
surface of the bed to carry away every thing that is 
likely to turn mouldy under a thatch ; cover the whole 
surface two inches thick with the driest ashes you can find, 
then the small sticks, after that dry straw or fern, &c. 
Whatever be the shape or size of the bed, the middle of 
I 
