March 20. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
just so, it is easier to forget a good old flower or fruit, 
than to refrain from admiring one, which, in addition to 
; novelty, bears unmistakeable marks of superiority. 
I A few words about sites, training, &c., may not here 
be misplaced. ■ In recommending fruits, it is common to 
affix aspects to them, it may be a wall, south, east, 
west, or even north. In many lists of fruits, we may 
find columns suggestive of aspects in rather too loose a 
manner, I fear, Now what is better, I conceive, as a 
real and simple guide to the inexperienced, for whom 
alone we profess to write, is tables which would show 
the adaptability of fruits to certain assumed centres in 
Great Britain. I will first assume that the English 
climate, as to tender fruits, may be thrown into three 
districts, southern, midland, and northern ; Scotland into 
three, viz., southern, western, and northern; and Ireland 
into two, viz., south and north. Now, such points, 
although, it must be confessed, compressed somewhat 
arbitrarily, would, I conceive, tolerably well assist in 
giving a more definite point to the question. 
For a southern point to England, we might as well 
take the great metropolis itself; for a midland point, 
why not say Birmingham? and for a northern, perhaps, 
Durham. As to Scotland, although I do not profess to 
be much acquainted with its varying features, perhaps 
Edinburgh, as south ; Argyle, as west; and Inverness, as 
north. For Ireland, south represented by Cork, north by 
Fermanagh. Or, if some may think the classification 
too tedious, we may further simplify the affair by taking 
England, Scotland, and Ireland in the lump, and say 
thus, London, York, Edinburgh-, Inverness, and Fer¬ 
managh ; for there would not be much need, in this 
case, to assign any peculiar importance to the south of 
Ireland. 
All this is, I confess, bold enough, and would, doubtless, 
be the better for the revision of one more conversant with 
the peculiarities of our insular climates thau I pretend to 
be. My observations, however, are simply offered as 
suggestive of a consideration of this question; and I 
shall be most lnrppy to confess to my extreme of 
opinion, and to be set right by better beads, and those 
more experienced in climate; with this clause added, that 
such experience must combine with it an intimate know¬ 
ledge of our fruits and their peculiarities. It must be 
remembered, however, that the character of the air, as 
to humidity, is to be taken into consideration, for it 
may not be settled by more tables of temperatures. 
Our new Bornological Society, which promises great 
things, will, doubtless, take such affairs in hand, and 
with a cougregatory of men of real experience, occasion¬ 
ally we shall attain sounder views concerning fruits. 
R. Errington. 
MEETING OF THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
March 6th. 
Her Majesty did not exhibit at this meeting; and as 
the royal table is allowed, on all hands culinary, to be 
the best served in this country with fruits and vegetables, 
generally, you might reasonably suppose that the meet¬ 
ing lacked the best things for table at this critical 
season for gardening, when the last year’s stock is well- 
nigh over, and that of the coining season is but just 
breaking bud, as it were. Not so, however; but there 
is one treat in Her Majesty’s garden exhibitions which 
is genuine English, and which, if it were more strictly 
j attended to by Scotch gardeners, would help, more than 
l anything I can think of, to keep up the credit of the 
“dear old country” for good gardening, and that is, 
never to exhibit any fruit or vegetable which if not quite 
first-rate is very nearly so. Certainly, wo never see 
anything of an inferior description, in public, from the 
469 
Royal gardens; but although I refrain from mentioning 
names, or titles below the crown, I must remark, in a 
quiet way, that “A Market-gardener” bad the tide on 
his side of the question very decidedly to-day; and he 
might very well exclaim, that if gentlemen’s gardeners 
do not know how to produce better things, they have 
yet much to learn, and very much to account for. 
Is it not strange that the handsome prizes which are 
now offered by the Society for vegetables do not bring 
out anything from the market-gardens round London ? 
There is, and must be, some very strong reasons for 
this; for nine times out of ten the market-gardeners 
could sweep off the whole of the prizes. We had nothing 
first-rate, or even second-rate, to-day in vegetables, 
except one bunch of Asparagus, one of forced Chicory, 
one of Mushrooms, and one dish or leash of Cucumbers; 
but we had some vegetables which were, absolutely and 
altogether, not fit to be thrown into the hog-tub. I 
never felt so ashamed in all my life as I did under a 
cross fire from two French gentleman whom 1 had never 
seen before, but who opened an allied fort against me 
in the library just as I was completing my notes. All 
1 could say was, that our best vegetables went to Bala¬ 
clava this year. But my own private opinion is, that 
the system of classing vegetables by the Society is on 
a wrong basis. 
To make up the requisite number of dislies for a 
class, I see the very best gardeners are compelled 
to send Mustard and Cress, or some other trifling 
article, which a poor apple-woman could force in her 
cottage window just as well as a gardener could. Then 
Celery and Endive are not “forced vegetables” at 
all, but they come under that head, and take away 
prizes. I believe we can grow Celery and Rhubarb 
against all the world ; therefore, there is no need of 
giving a prize for either of them. There is little art, 
and no science, required to provide a salad of Mustard 
and Cress every day in the year, if one has a mind; an 
old broken tea-cup and a cottage window could supply 
one in the middle of the frost; therefore, I can see no 
earthly use in giving a prize for Mustard and Cress. 
But one never sees a forced Lettuce, large, crisp, and 
juicy, in winter; and it would be worth while to offer a 
good prize for six of them in January, February, March, 
and April. The truth is, however, that in this cold 
climate nine persons out of ten shudder at seeing a 
fountain at play after the middle of September till next 
May, or a salad-bowl from October to March. From 
this it results that not one out of a thousand think of 
devoting a three-light frame for winter Lettuce. 
Mushrooms are still open to vast improvement. There 
is not a better or a more wholesome vegetable than 
a well-forced Mushroom; but all that have been sent 
to Regent-street, for the last few years, were grown in an 
atmosphere which was too low and too dry for them, 
and when that is the case, they are not nearly so good, 
nor so wholesome. It is very rare indeed that you can 
pick out a good dish of Mushrooms in Covent Garden 
Market after the middle of November. 
Then, who are right about Asparagus ? A particular 
friend wrote, desiring me to give the length, the thick¬ 
ness, and the weight of Asparagus in my report (see 
page 463). Well, to please him, here it is ; the largest, 
the longest, and the heaviest at this Meeting, was sent 
from Covent Garden, by Mr. Solomon, one of the great 
salesmen there. The longest sticks were just fifteen 
inches long, two inches round in the thickest part, and 
as heavy as a stick of oak or holly three times the size ; 
hut what then? It had no colour, no succulency, and 
as to flavour, it must be all gone long before boiling 
could make it sufficiently soft; and after all, thirteen 
inches out of the fifteen are a dead loss, for no mortal 
| jaws could tear it lower down. My idea of good 
| Asparagus is to have it from seven to nine inches long, 
