THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION, September 29, 1857. 407 
stances so widely different from those in which we 
generally see them that I make no apology for describing 
what appeared to me a “ mystery.” 
The place I allude to was of unpretending appear¬ 
ance—a number of low glass houses, some lean-to, 
others span-roofed, clustered together on a very slightly 
elevated position in a flat neighbourhood bordering the 
river Mersey. Some ground under ordinary market 
gardening bore crops around those houses, and the ad¬ 
joining fields were grass. Some of the houses had been 
forced early, and, having ripened their crops, were in a 
state of rest prior to being pruned for work another year. 
Other houses had excellent, and, I may add, heavy crops 
of fruit on them just fit for the table. Others had Grapes 
scarcely ripe, but promising well, the kinds grown 
being Black Hamburghs and White Muscats. A span- 
roofed house had a crop of the latter, not then (the 20th 
of August) quite ripe, certainly the heaviest I ever saw. 
| The gardener, Mr. Summers, told me he calculated there 
would be about 7 cwt. of fruit in it, though the house 
was not unusually large, and they all promised well. 
Certainly I have seen larger bunches where a Vine 
has been thinned very much to obtain a large growth; 
but these under notice were all good, and, as I say, were 
an exceedingly heavy crop. 
Now, I suppose my readers will be saying that all 
this is common-place, and I admit it is so far; but the 
circumstances under which they were grown were 
certainly out of the usual way. The situation of the 
place, as I have just said, was on a slight eminence in 
a level country near the river Mersey and its tributary 
streams; and some heavy rains on the 13th and 
14th of August had so swelled these streams that they 
overflowed their banks and laid the neighbouring 
lands all under water, completely surrounding the 
cluster of forcing houses of the place I speak of, put¬ 
ting out all the fires, and reaching to within about two 
feet of the top of the Vine border. This flood, of course, 
subsided in about a week, leaving the usual disagree¬ 
able smell behind. Such floods are unusual in August, 
but are common enough in winter, and I was told that 
for two months one season the ground was covered con¬ 
tinually with water, preventing any of the fires from 
acting, and that during that time Muscat Grapes were 
exhibited from them at one of the London shows which 
carried off the first prize. 
This is an extreme case; but the advocates for deep 
borders, deep drainage, &c., must in this instance see 
the inutility of their plans; for here we have the best 
Muscat Grapes, or as good as any need be, grown in a 
house where at times no fire can be put on for weeks 
together, and the border all but immersed in water ; for, 
as I say, the highest portion of it was barely two feet 
above water mark, and the quantity that surrounded it 
was hundreds of acres. 
Such a state of things, I confess, puzzled me, as I had 
been led to expect that dryness formed one of the 
necessary qualifications for keeping Grapes or any other 
fruit, and 1 hardly expected to see such perfection where 
the plant was treated more as an .aquatic than one in¬ 
habiting dry, upland situations. I accordingly made 
some further inquiries of the formation of the border 
and other matters, which I must say were frankly and 
freely answered, and every information given; but I 
find the subject is too long for one notice. I must 
therefore defer the remainder until another week. 
J. Robson. 
HONEY HARVEST. 
I am glad to see that your correspondent, Mr. Wighton, 
has called attention to the too frequent assertions made of 
large harvests of honey obtainable from particular hives. 
I do not mean that the authors always intend wilful de¬ 
ception, but it is seldom remembered that the land of hive * 
abstractedly, has very little to do with the collection of 
stores, and this fact cannot be too often pointed out to those 
on the look out for mere novelty. Mr. Golding especially 
cautions the readers of his work against any such expecta¬ 
tions, as also does Mr. Taylor. I am the more led into this 
train of thought from having seen not many weeks since, in 
a weekly paper, the revival of a statement originally put 
forth by the late Mr. Nutt, as an inducement to purchase 
his hives, of marvellous honey harvests to be obtained 
from them, and which the correspondent of the said 
paper seems actually to have believed. Another corre¬ 
spondent, however, immediately afterwards exposed the 
monstrous fiction in its true colours. In order to let the 
novice see to what lengths credulity is expected to go it will 
be well to extract from Nutt’s book his own words as 
follows:— 
“ Summary of the several deprivations or takings of honey 
from one set of boxes this season, 1826 - 
lbs. 
“ May 27th, glass and box . 54 
June 9th, box. 4 .. 56 
„ 10th, glass. 14 k 
„ 12th, „ 60 
„ 13th, „ 52 
„ „ collateral box .. 60 
Total... 296 £” 
In commenting upon this tale of wonder Dr. Dunbar says 
that Nutt declared “ he left 109 lbs. of honey behind for the 
bees! ” Dr. Bevan, likewise, in speaking of the same sub¬ 
ject, adds of Nutt, “ I am informed that in his lecture 
delivered at Maidstone in 1834 he asserted that from ten 
families during the current year he obtained 918 lbs. of 
honey; nay, more, that the stocks still weighed 900 lbs.! ”— 
(See £ ‘ Honey Bee.”) 
It is not meant, of course, to be implied that all hives are 
alike in point of utility or convenience, and certain rules as 
to capacity are needful according to circumstances ; but I 
would wish to caution the bee-keeper, against being misled 
by the fallacy of expecting that a family will store more or 
better honey as influenced by the mode of construction of 
their dwelling. To use Mr. Golding’s words, “ Let my 
readers repel the quackery which would have them believe 
that it was the kind of hive that commanded the honeyed 
store. No, that will be ruled by the season and locality, 
and these vary greatly.”— An Old Apiarian. 
FLOWERS BLOOMING OUT OF DOORS THIS 
SUMMER. 
This has been such a wonderful year for flowers that I 
think you ought to get your readers to send you lists of 
unusual plants that have been noticed by them in flower. 
It might be an interesting record, and, as a beginning, I 
send you the following small list of hardy plants which have 
flowered in my garden at Bitton, Gloucestershire, this year, 
and which, though mostly old plants, have either never 
flowered before or very sparingly :— 
Snake’s-head Iris. 
Acacia julibrissin. 
Bignonia capreolata. 
Aralia spinosa or racemosa (I do not know which). 
Hydrangea quercifolia. 
Pomegranate, profusely; the double variegated-flowered 
sort. 
Hemerocallis or Funkia alba, a most beautiful white 
flower, which I do not see in The Cottage Gardener’s 
Dictionary. 
Koelreuteria paniculata. 
Double white Hibiscus, a lovely shrub, which in previous 
years had rarely perfected its flowers, but this year is a 
mass of fine bloom. 
I hope some more of your readers will send you lists.— 
H. N. E. 
[We shall be much obliged by similar lists being sent to 
us.—E d. C. G.j 
