February 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
391 
of the Royal Gardens, Windsor; Mr. Fleming, gardener 
to the Duke of Sutherland ; Mr. Forbes, gardener to the 
Duke of Bedford; Mr. Jennings, gardener to the Earl 
of Derby, at Knowsley ; Mr. Snow, gardener to Earl do 
Grey; Mr. McEwen, gardener to Colonel Wyndham, 
Petworth ; Mr. Morison, gardener to A. Donaldson, Esq.; 
Mr. Page, gardener to W. Leaf, Esq., Park Hill, Streat- 
ham; Mr. Butcher, the well-known distributor of the 
Barbarossa Grape , from Stratford-on-Avon; and Mr. 
Clai-k, market-gardener, Turnmoss, near Manchester; 
all and severally proved, if proof were wanting, that 
Grapes can be kept in the highest perfection till Grapes 
“ come again,” if people will choose to go to the expense 
in men and materials. Let me be rightly understood. 
Men bring their value in the market like other com¬ 
modities, and if you or I expect that a man for five-and- 
twenty shillings a week can do as much as another 
man at fifty-five shillings a week, we shall never reach the 
top of the prize-list. Yet, it is as easy as counting 
swallows, for a man, who spends no more than five pounds 
a week on his garden, to take the first prize over the 
heads of two more, who, each of them, may have spent 
fifty pounds a week, for years past, on their gardens. 
These ten competitors for Grapes proved, also, that the 
Barbarossa, the Black St. Peter's, and the Black Ham¬ 
burgh will all keep equally well till Grapes “ come again.” 
They proved, likewise, that the Muscat of Alexandria 
has nine chances to one against its keeping quite so 
long. But, on the other hand, they afforded a proof in 
which few Grape-growers would believe, which is, that 
the common White Muscadine can be kept till the 
middle of February. Mr. McEwen, not he of Arundel 
Castle, but an older acquaintance of mine, at Petworth, 
sent a bunch of this White Muscadine, another of some 
early Black Grape; both had the berries as much shrivelled 
almost as raisins, yet every footstalk was as sound as 
they were last September. Here, then, is a rule to go 
to market with,—never buy a bunch of Grapes again 
without looking if the footstalks of the berries are sound, 
and not shrivelled ; or if they are dried up, that they are 
of the same colour as the big stalks, or stalks which 
hold the bunch together; if they are black or brown, 
it is what we call “ shanked,” and the berries of a 
shanked bunch are next to poison. They would not 
kill a gardener, it is true, else I should have been dead 
years ago; but no one who is at all of a delicate con¬ 
stitution should taste a berry from a bunch that is 
shanked. 
Mr. Forbes, at Woburn Abbey, has now established 
his claims to the high distinction of being the best 
Grape-grower in England. He is the only one among 
us who brings out his last year’s Grapes and the first 
Grapes of this season together; and if they were put into 
the same dish, I am quite sure there are Grape-dealers, 
in Covent Garden, who could not tell the Black Ham- 
burghs of 1854 from those of 1855, as they were staged by 
Mr. Forbes on the 6th instant. Mr. John Richardson, 
one of my pupils at Sbrublaud Park, is Mr. Forbes’s 
foreman, and 1 am looking for a first-rate situation for 
him. I have been requested to do so by Mr. Forbes 
himself, with whom l have been acquainted for many 
years, and with his father before him. Of course, Mr. 
Forbes took the first prize with late Grapes, and I think 
Mr. Clark took the second prize with the Muscat of 
Alexandria, which was, indeed, most beautifully kept. 
He is a market-gardener, at Turnmoss, Manchester, and 
this is the first time, 1 think, I have booked him. Few 
things give me more pleasure than to welcome a new 
comer with the proper marks about him, and the next 
best thing I like is to hear from himself the story of his 
success. Mr. Fleming, Mr. Snow, Mr. Butcher, and 
Mr. Morison, exhibited with the Barbarossa Grape. 
The rest, not yet specified, were either Black Hamburghs 
or Black St. Peters, and there was not a second-rate 
berry in the lots. The Judges must have put their wits 
to work to decide the shades of difference, such is the 
perfection to which this branch is now carried in high 
quarters. Mr. Morison is also new to my notes, and a 
welcome visitor. 
Pine-Apples. —Plere, again, the best Pine-growers in 
the country contested; Mr. Ingram, Mr. Fleming, Mr. 
Dodds, gardener to Colonel Baker, Salisbury ; Mr. James, 
gardener, Poutypool Park, Monmouthshire; Mr. McEwen, 
gardener to the Duke of Norfolk; and Mr. Bailey, gar¬ 
dener, ShardiloesPark, Bucks, being exhibitors. All their 
Pines appeared to me to be on the average of first-class 
fruit at this early season, and all of them were small 
crowned. Mr. Fleming took the first prize with one 
of the Smooth-leaved Cayenne, with a very small crown, 
and weighing 4 His.; the other was a new Pine to us, in 
London, a very handsome fruit, looking like a well-filled- 
out Montserrat Pine; it was 4IBs. 4oz., and was called 
Charlotte Rothschild. Another Pine, to match, of the 
same kind, was sent by Mr. Dodds, from Salisbury, 
being 4 lbs. 3 oz.; and like a man whose head is put 
on the right way, Mr. Dodds sent a note about this 
Charlotte Rothschild Pine, to say that he had grown it 
for several years; that he finds it to fruit and swell-off 
equally well in winter and in summer; and that he 
highly recommends it. I have not seen Mr. Dodds 
since the 14th of May, 1831; but I always take heed 
what information he sends up to the Society. Mr. 
Bailey’s Pine was very conical, red-looking, and with a 
crown no bigger than a robin’s head ; but there was no 
name to it, and I did not know the sort. The rest were 
Queens and Ripley Queens. 
Pears. —There was an extraordinary competition with 
Pears, but there being so many things to talk about, 
we had no regular lecture, properly so called, but the 
man at the helm observed, that no one could believe 
that this was a scarce year for Apples and Pears, judging 
from what were before us. I always considered that 
Ne Plus Meuris was our best and most legitimate Pear 
for February; yet, with the exception of one dish of 
He Plus Meuris, we had only the last of the January 
Pears instead. I should tremble to send up a dish of 
Glout Morceau to a fashionable party in February, but 
there were several good dishes of it there ; also of the 
Easter Beurre, and Winter Helis, with Passe Colmar, 
Knight's Monarch, Winter Crassane, and Chaumontelle. 
Mr. Tillyard, gardener to the Right Hon. the Speaker, 
at Heckfield, took the first prize in Pears, with Glout 
Morceau, Easter Beurre, and Ne Plus Meuris. They 
were splendid fruit. He had another lot, but not for 
competition, consisting of Passe Colmar, Knight's 
Monarch, the two best of all the January Pears, also 
Winter Nells, equally good in December and January, 
and Beurre Ranee, with another kind, called Susette de 
Bavay, which I do not know. It was early for the 
Beurre Ranee, but one never knows the state of this 
Pear till it is tasted, it always looks dark brown. It 
was in other collections, and, no doubt, is now in season, 
and will last till May, as it is always the latest of the 
very best kinds. Mr. Snow had the second prize, for 
Glout Morceau, Easter Beurre, and Chaumontelle ; and 
Mr. McEwen, of Arundel, took the third prize with 
Passe Colmar, Easter Beurre, and Beurre Ranee. Mr. 
Robertson, gardener to Lady Emily Foley, Stoke Edith 
Park, near Ledbury, Herefordshire, had the best-looking 
Chaumontelle Pears I have seen for a long time ; also 
the Easter Beurre and Glout Morceau. I know Stoke 
Edith Park, and I should take it to be as liable to spring 
frost as any place in the county, but it has been long 
noted for good fruit, inside and out, and Mr. Robertson 
seems the very man to keep up the name. There is, or 
was, a tree of the Tulip Apple in that garden, which 
used to bear the finest-looking Apples in Herefordshire, 
or, indeed, in all England, except, perhaps, the Beauty 
