March 13. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
AB3 
have only been made aware of my want of perspicuity in 
the remarks on gas stoves I sent you. 
“ You presumed rightly, that I did not mean that the wire 
gauze was to be so coarse as inch mesh, but that above each 
jet of gas there should be a circular piece of wire gauze, 
one inch in diameter. That the jet should bo, say one inch 
below this, and that the gas, if 
a more jets than one are used, 
should be conveyed by a sort of 
funnel to the gauze, s® as to pre¬ 
vent it being blown backwards 
and forwards. My experience 
is limited, so I wish merely to 
hint. 
“ I had, two years ago, a ono- 
light frame heated by a hot- 
water boiler and gas. The boiler 
was nine inches long, by three 
inches wide, and the gauze occu¬ 
pied one-half of the space below. 
I found this would not do, 
owing to the flickering of the 
A flat Burface of pause 
covering. 
The funnel enclosing the 
gas from 
the jet. 
light over the surface, thus four-and-a-half inches to three 
inches, and I painted up all but a square inch. Unfor¬ 
tunately, owing to the gross carelessness of the man I em¬ 
ployed to lay the pipe, which had to pass thirty feet or so 
underground, a largo escape of gas was permitted, which 
swelled my quarter’s bill £10! ! so in disgust I gave up 
my experiments, but may again renew them, if I can benefit 
by the experience of others.—G. A., Glasgow." 
LONDON ASPARAGUS. 
“ I am one of those who generally read with much interest 
your account of the Horticultural Society’s Meetings, and 
am generally much pleased by the very explicit manner 
in which you describe things there; still, we country 
folk are sometimes at a loss about some things. As an 
example,—in the concluding part of your report of last 
Meeting, given in the last week's paper, you say Mr. Ingram’s 
Asparagus was the best ever seen in London. This, 
I suppose, means, at this season. However, this I will leave, 
and come the point, which is,—if out of such a good sample 
you could only beg one head, as a fair sample of the whole, 
and tell us the length, circumference, or weight, you would 
give U3 a very fair criterion to judge fairly by of our own 
produce. If you could do this at the next Meeting, I for 
one should feel greatly obliged.— William Bradley." 
[Thelength, the circumference, or the weight, of Asparagus 
has no more to do with its goodness, or quality, than the 
length, circumference, or weight, of Mary, queen of Scotland, 
had to do with her pretty face, or the cause she espoused. 
The excellence of Asparagus depends upon the quantity and 
quality of its eatable portin*.’- For the London market 
Asparagus is earthed over very deeply, because the citizens 
ignorantly like to see a long white stem. This white 
portion is totally worthless. We, and all who covet fiavour, 
as well as quantity of useful produce in our Asparagus 
shoots, never earth the beds producing it, and let the shoots 
rise five or six inches above the surface, and get well- 
coloured before wo cut them. Nearly the whole is then 
eatable, and the flavour is heightened tenfold over that cut 
blanched.] 
PEARS UPON WHITE THORN STOCKS. 
“ I have been anxiously reading the different papers ns 
they have appeared in The Cottaoe Gardener for two 
years, expecting something would have appeared upon this 
subject; but natural stocks, Apple stocks, and Quince stocks, 
all appear to have their respective admirers; and as 1 
recollect, when I was a boy, some thirty years ago, my uncle, 
in his day, had his small cottage garden, where I imbibed 
what little taste I at present possess for such matters; and, as 
far as my recollection serves mo, he took a pride in raising 
Pears upon the White Thorn stock; but as none of your 
contributors or correspondents seem to notice it, I almost 
begin to think I may be mistaken. My reason for troubling 
you is, that twelvemonths ago, in removing some quick Thorn, 
ten or twelve years old, I picked out four, cut them down to 
about a foot from the root, planted them on a south border, 
allowed them to throw out shoots round the top during last 
summer, and they are now, I conceive, ready for grafting this 
spring. II you do not think it would answer to graft Pears 
upon such stocks, what would you recommond ? I am quite a 
novice in these matters ; and I may inform you that my 
small patch lies very plain to the north and west winds ; the 
thermometer has never exceeded 38° this year, and has 
several times been as low as, once 13°, and 17° and 18° 
several times out-of-doors, during the frost. If you think 
Pears would answer, what are the kinds you would recom¬ 
mend ? If not Pears, what other fruit-tree is likely to thrive 
and bear fruit on them ? I offer no apology for troubling 
you, as I find you take a pleasure in giving advice in such 
cases.—H.” 
[We have inserted this communication without a reply, 
because we shall bo very much obliged by any of our readers 
informing us of their experience in grafting Pears upon 
White Thorn stocks.] 
PREDICTION OF THE FROST. 
“ I want very much to know in what Mr. Beaton grounded 
his extraordinary prediction of the late frost.—W. B. 
Brodie.” 
[Mr. Beaton replies,—“ I have had several other applica¬ 
tions, wanting to know my secret for judging the weather. I 
am now at the top of the treo as a weather prophet, and I could 
make a fortune of my secret any day if I choose, but my 
fortune is made already. I shall sell my secret, however, 
to the highest bidder, but not under one hundred thousand 
guineas, to any one, minus the income tax!—D. Beaton.”] 
KTNG OF THE PIPPINS. 
“ In his report of the meeting of the Horticultural Society, 
page 393 of The Cottage Gardener, Mr. Beaton, in speak¬ 
ing of the ‘King of the Pippins’ Apple, relates what I 
believe to be a fact, ‘that Mr. Kirk, the fruit nurseryman, 
imposed upon the Horticultural Society by this name,’ Ac. 
But when he states that ‘ Forsyth, Liudley, Rogers in 
England, and Downing in America, have all called it one 
after the other the Golden Winter Pearmain,’ I fear be is 
wrong; for I have referred to all these authors, and cannot 
find it mentioned by either of them. 
“ In Mr. Hogg's British Pomology, I find that gentleman 
has described it under its original name, for which, and 
similar acts, I remember, two or three years ago, he had to 
defend himself against what I thought an unwarrantable 
attack in a contemporary Journal. 
“ As I am fond of Horticultural pursuits, and particularly 
those that relate to pomology, and am always anxious to get 
good information on such subjects, I shall be glad if Mr. 
Beaton will give me the references in the above works, 
where I may meet with the ‘ Golden Winter Pearmain.’ — 
C. G. S., York.” 
[The above is quite correct, I did put the cart before the 
horse, and I fear not for the first time. I wrote from 
memory, and .confounded the statements by Mr. Hogg, 
in his British Pomology, with some criticisms made on 
the Bornological Magazine in the Gardener’s Magazine. Mr. 
Hogg’s British Pomology contains the best and most correct 
account of Apples in the English language; and for the 
future I shall consult its pages, as I ought to have done 
about the King of the Pippins. — D. Beaton.] 
GROWING LAVENDER FROM CUTTINGS. 
“Will you oblige me by telling me the best time to strike 
Lavender cuttings ? (my employer wishes to have them put 
round a bed, to remain and strike there, to serve for an 
edging,) and to inform me of the treatment ? I wish to 
have them as dwarf as possible, and want them to flower 
well, to look pretty from the drawing-room window.—II. W.” 
[This is a good time to put in slips of Lavender; but 
they will not do much good as you propose, unless the place 
is shaded and very favourable. You had much better strike 
the cuttings first, and plant them round the bed next year.] 
