46 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
April 21. 
a useful dessert kind, when others run short, and have 
become shrivelled. That indefatigable author, Mr. E. Hogg, 
in his excellent book on British Pomology, gives the following 
correct account of this Apple :— 
“ Fruit above the medium size, three inches wide, and two 
inches and three-quarters high ; roundish-ovate, angular, 
or somewhat five-sided, and narrowing towards the eye. 
Skin greenish-yellow, sprinkled with large rusty dots, which 
are largest about the base, and with a faint blush of red 
next the sun. Eye closed, set in a deep, narrow, and angular 
basin, which is lined with russet. Stalk very short, in¬ 
serted in an even funnel-shaped cavity, from which issue 
ramifications of russet. Flesh white, firm, crisp, with a 
brisk and poignant acid flavour. An excellent culinary 
Apple, of first-rate quality, in use in December, and keeps 
till March, when it possesses more acidity than any other 
variety which keeps to so late a period. It is said to have 
been raised at Hanwell, aplace near Banbury, in Oxfordshire." 
Those who are interested in Apple culture should cer¬ 
tainly possess this work. It is the most complete one on 
the Apple in existence at the present day. The author, and 
the man to whom the work is dedicated, have spent almost a 
life-time among fruit, and are allowed to know more about 
them than any other two men in England. This is just 
a nice book for gentlemen or ladies to put into the hands 
of their gardeners as a present—setting him up at once 
with a complete history and description of the Apple; thus 
enabling him to go to book as he may occasionally require. 
I like to be able to go to book, notwithstanding I have heard 
many men say they never troubled themselves about books, 
or that they would not give a farthing either for books or 
for hook-men. I quite disagree with these men, and like 
books and book men too. My brother gardeners may be 
assured that going to book makes one perfect out-of-boob— 
that is, in our practice. When any fresh plant comes to 
2 ny hands, whether from the nurseryman or friend, I never 
take their word for its name; I always go to book about it, 
and am never satisfied until I have seen its name in print; 
thus implanting the matter so much the more on my 
memory. Besides, if one was never to see many of those 
awkward names of fruits and plants, it is for certain one 
never could spell them correctly. 
This is rather running away from' the Apple story; but I 
will return by saying, I first became acquainted with the 
Hanwell Souring while living at Tusmore House, in Oxford¬ 
shire, as gardener there. This noble house is about twenty 
miles from Banbury, in the same county; and in its fine old 
kitchen-garden were four or five trees of this favourite kind 
of apple. One, in particular, of their number, was the finest 
specimen I think I have ever seen. Without any doubt, all 
were planted at the same time, but the others had been 
cut away to prevent their over-shading too much ground. 
Now of Apples of profitable kinds, never saw I such, before 
or since, about any other gentleman’s mansion. There were 
no great variety of sorts; I think I may safely say not above 
twelve or fourteen varieties altogether ; three of which were 
culinary kinds, namely, the old English Codlin; the true 
Lemon Pippin, such as I used to see in Gloucester and 
Herefordshire, and also is a first-rate sauce apple, and a 
good keeper; and the Hanwell Souring. The last yielded 
the greatest bulk, and the fruit was ready for use by the 
time the Codlins were over; so that the grand thing, 
where one has to serve a family, great or small, was 
secured, namely, to have enough in bulk of certain and 
good productive kinds, both for the dessert and kitchen 
uses, and in both cases, early as well as long-keeping 
kinds are required. Among these are the Cornish Git- 
lijlowcr. Who would bo tired of seeing this at their 
table? It is one of our best eating and dessert kinds, 
aud may be had in use for three months, or even longer, if 
one had enough in bulk to take from. This is the very 
kind to have in large quantity. Just the same may be said 
of very many other kinds, yet how rare it is to find too many 
of the old Nonpareil in any garden ! This is another long- 
keeping kind, and sure to give good satisfaction in the 
dessert. It is too much the fashion to have many different 
pecks in the apple-store to supply from, but we gardeners 
want the quantity and quality too. A great variety of 
Apples is all very well, particularly if we want to exhibit 
at a horticultural show; but for the supply of the rich man’s 
kitchen and dessert-table, enough in bulk of good sorts, to 
go through the season in succession, is the main point to 
aim at. Now, this large Apple-tree in the kitchen-garden, | 
at Tusmore House, has been commonly known to produce I 
from forty to fifty bushels of Apples in a season. The other j 
trees gave their share too; and, indeed, it was a saying with 
the garden-men who had known these trees for years, that j 
they always bore a very heavy crop one year, and a good 
middling crop the next year, and so on successively. Such 
I have noticed since to be the case with this kind of Apple. 
The soil of this garden was of a tenacious character, just 
such as suited the Apple and fruits in general. 
When I came to Winchester, although I found a variety 
of kinds of Apples, I found no Hanwell Souring among 
them; but shortly after being here, and in company with 
one of the clerks of the Winchester Cathedral, who was 
from the neighbourhood of Banbury, he asked me if I knew 
this Apple, I said I did; he then informed that he had two 
trees of it in his little garden that he had bought of the | 
nurseryman, Mr. Berry, of Banbury. Finding three or four 
healthy seedling young trees in my master’s garden, I 
headed two of them, and grafted them from these Hanwell 
Soarings, in March, 1835, and two fine trees they now are, 
and the most useful trees I have in the garden at this > 
time.— T. Weaver, Gardener to the Warden of Winchester 
College. 
HYBRIDS—POLANDS. 
I have little time or inclination to enter into a controversy 
with “ Upwards and Onwards,” but as you say that you 
leave it to the disputant parties, my silence might be con¬ 
strued into an inability to carry the argument further; and 
as it would be asimplo matter to inundate you with instances 
of Hybrids between the common hen and common pheasant, 
I now beg to introduce to your notice the 18th Volume of 
Penny Cyclopedia, page 01, from which 1 make the following 
extract:— 
“ The union between the common hen and the cock 
pheasant is by no means rare, as is well known to those 
whose homesteads border upon pheasant preserves. The 
produce of this union is called a I’ero. Many of these, 
some of them very fine birds, have been kept together in 
the gardens of the Zoological Society, in the Regent’s Park, 
but they never, as far as we have been able to learn, exhibit 
any inclination to breed. They are generally considered, as 
Mr. Yarrell observes, to he unproductive among themselves, 
all being half-bred; but the case is different when they are 
paired either with the true pheasant or the common fowl. 
Edward Fuller, Esq., of Carlton Hall, near Saxmundham, 
has recorded that his game-keeper had succeeded in rearing 
two birds from a barn-door hen, having a cross from a 
pheasant and a pheasant cock, which he presented to the 
Zoological Society. On the same evening, when these 
three-quarter bred pheasants were noticed, Hybrids between 
the pheasant and common fowl, the common pheasant and 
the silver pheasant, and the common pheasant with the gold 
pheasant, were placed on the Society’s table for exhibition.” 
I presume that this, with the living specimen exhibited 
in Baker Street Poultry Show, will be deemed conclusive, 
when it is also considered that there are numerous preserved 
specimens in the museum of the Zoological Society. It 
will, perhaps, also be deemed sufficient to negative “ Upwards ! 
aud Onwards’s” assertion that “ Hybrids are invariably \ 
sterile," and, if not, I beg to refer him to the recent expe- j 
riments made by the late Earl of Derby with a cock bird of j 
Phasianus Versicolor, from which single bird he succeeded i 
in rearing 7-8tlis bred birds, scarcely distinguishable from i 
the true Versicolor; this fact is patent, as the offspring j 
were sold at Knowsley, and a full account is given in the 
catalogue. I should further state, that this male specimen 
of Versicolor was the only living specimen in Europe. The j 
truth that Hybrids are fruitful when united with the pure J 
breed of either parent, is thus placed beyond a doubt, 
“ Upwards and Onwards” notwithstanding. 
Having thus settled the question with your Correspondent, 
I must have a word or two with your good-selves. You 
begin by stating that form and carriage are to be considered. 
Have I not expressly mentioned form in the list of merits 
sent to you ? and as to carriage, that depends more on the 
