500 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 20. 
tallest standards in the centre, so that the visitor can 
walk round and round, and inspect every rose-bush 
I without treading upon the soil. I think this an ad¬ 
mirable arrangement of this queen of hardy flowers. 
The garden was originally a flat surface, but has been 
broken by mounds and Jong elevations, the materials 
for which were obtained, in a great measure, out of a 
space laid out as a winding lake. The water is well 
stocked with all the hardy aquatics, with the exception 
of the various kinds of Nymphea. The finest aquatic 
here is the Sagittaria latifolin. It was in flower when 
I called. The flowers are produced in spikes, which 
J stand above the water a foot or eighteen inches. 
I The flowers are white, and as large and as double as a 
j Hyacinth, which they greatly resemble. Every hardy 
aquarium ought to have this truly beautiful plant iii 
it. On the banks of this lake there is a winding path, 
and on the side of that walk from the water there is a 
i large rockwork, well stocked with the best Alpine plants, 
and many hardy Ferns. Some parts of the banks are 
clothed with lofty trees, affording, in hot weather, a 
pleasant, cool retreat from the burning rays of the sun. 
T. Appleby. 
(To be continued.) 
ON PRESERVING WINTER FRUITS. 
Although all horticultural writers agree that a fruit- 
room ought to be clean, yet not a few urge the necessity 
ot its being as “sweet as a dairy;” this sounds very 
well, but I wonder who ever attained that high position 
yet, for I have a shrewd guess they had but very little 
fruit to preserve, because, however agreeable the above 
tempting observation may be, which has, by-the-by, 
become as common as “ household words,” yet there arc 
few persons conversant with our winter fruits but are 
aware that they emit odours, of various degrees, which i 
would be inimical to the good-keeping of milk was it 1 
placed in the same room. Indeed, the said odours are 
no more under the control of the collector of fruit than 
those of certain cesspools, sewers, &c., are under the 
command of the sanitary commissioners. Neither do 
we wish our brethren to attempt to check or stifle such 
exhalations farther than by retarding, as will bo hereafter 
shown, all undue haste in that operation being per¬ 
formed by the circumstances under which the plants are 
I placed. 
If fruit be gathered, and placed in such a position as 
encourages it to part with those subtle gases, which, in 
common phrase, we call “smell,” in too great a pro- ! 
fusion, in just like ratio is it travelling on the road to 
destruction. Now, as this is the key to the whole 
mystery, it would seem to imply that extreme cold 
! would be the best preservative, and, to a certain extent, j 
no doubt it is. In fact, I think in all cases it is; but 
cold must be mitigated, in certain instances, wherein 
other reasons call for the operation of ripening or 
mellowing being performed by greater warmth, other- 
j wise, the flavour which nature intended the plant to 
l h ave will l> e deficient. From the same cause and cir- j 
cumstances, fresh meat in Russia and North America, 
alter being kept some months in a frozen state, loses 
its flavour. The chilliness by which it is surrounded, 
instead ot sealing-up and preserving those good points, 
would seem to dispel them, therefore, we may, in like 
manner, keep our pears in an ice-house ; but it is 
j questionable whether they can be brought out from 
it with any chance of their attaining that flavour 
they might have had if ripened sooner in conditions 
more like that which nature intended for them. It is, 
theicfore, on this principle that retarded fruits are 
seldom so good as those ripened at the proper period. 
However, the requirements of society are such, that 
the longer the period wherein good and useful fruit can 
be commanded, the more the merit; and some, as Grapes, 
Apples, Cucumbers, and even Pine Apples, may occa¬ 
sionally be met with at all seasons, or rather, that most 
prolific of all gardens, Covent Garden, is never entirely 
without these things, and probably many more, only the 
wide sources from which these supplies are drawn ren¬ 
ders it impossible for any one -“private garden” to com¬ 
pete with them. 
The necessary condition for keeping Apples is a cool 
and pure atmosphere, iree from stagnant moisture, yet 
not dry, for, in fact, a certain amount of moisture is 
beneficial rather than otherwise, only it ought not to be 
contaminated with the vapours which the loaded shelves 
too often exhale. This is only removed by copious 
ventilation, and for this reason a fruit-room ought to be 
lofty, and the shelves sufficiently apart to allow that due 
circulation of air, without which preservation to any 
great extent must be looked for in vain. 
We are far from certain whether broad, close shelves, 
only one foot apart, as we have seen some, are not abso¬ 
lutely worse than laying the fruit thicker on shelves 
admitting a more free current of air through them. In 
this point, as well as that of having the fruit-room lofty, 
I am borne out by the practice of many of the Tventish 
farmers, whose keeping-apples are mostly stowed away 
in their hop-kilns, which are either conical or pyramidal 
structures, whose bottom is some eight or ten feet above 
the ground-level; and the cone, or pyramid, being ' 
“steep-pitched,” as builders term it, the apex is sur- I 
mounted by a cowl of about two feet or a yard in ; 
diameter, thereby giving every opportunity for all im¬ 
purities in the air to pass off at the top, which, no I 
doubt, serves an admirable part at the time the apples 
are stored there, by feeding the interior with pure air, to 
replace that carried off at top as it becomes vitiated; 
fire-heat, of course, is dispensed with, and no covering 
put over the fruit until very severe weather renders it 
necessary. Now, when it is considered that the fruit 
often lies in these kilns in a body two feet thick, and 
turns out in excellent order at a late period, it would 
seem that the so-much urged proposition of laying them 
thin, or even singly on shelves, was, after all, a piece of 
pedantry ; yet such is not the case. If those fruits that 
lay in such heaps over the well-ventilated hop-kiln had 
been lying singly there, they would probably have kept 
much longer ; but as it is, the most important points to 
their preservation were kept in view in the thorough 
top-ventilation which the nature of the building afforded ; 
ventilation, perhaps,more perfeetthan in many structures 
where that object is specially attempted, because the 
inner surface of the cone forming the kiln being smooth 
and free from any of those impediments which check 
the upward current of air, whatever gaseous impurities 
are generated in the interior are carried off at top’ by the 
admission ot a purer fluid below; the nature of the 
building being such as to encourage such a draught, 
there is less wonder at the good keeping of the fruit 
inside; consequently, we may, from that, take a lesson, 
and, comparing it with most ordinary fruit-rooms, let us 
see in how much they differ. 
In very many gardens, the store-i'oom for the keeping 
of winter fruits is placed against some portion of the 
garden wall, often the north one, and possibly is con¬ 
sidered very good indeed, if it be ceiled, and have the- 
luxury of a window that will open to admit air. Now, 
it very often happens, that this window is small, and 
does not extend to the top or ceiling of the room, and there 
is often no other outlet for the impurities which generate ! 
there ; consequently, the upper portion of the room is a j 
sort of repository for all these volatile impurities, which, ] 
being lighter than common air, float there, their grosser I 
parts being only removed by the admission of fresh ' 
air in at the window, and the consequent withdrawal 
