22 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, Apeil 12, 1859. 
three days in brine ; then wash them in cold water, and set them 
over the fire in plenty of fresh water. As soon as they boil, take 
them off, drain them, and set them over the fire again in plenty 
of another water ; let them come to the boil a second time, and 
change the water again ; but this time add a small lump, the size 
of a hazel nut, of bicarbonate of potash. Let them boil for half an 
hour, and stand all night in the water to cool. Next morning put 
them on a sieve to drain. Bruise, in a mortar, half a pound or 
more of the best and freshest ginger, which put into two quarts of 
water, with an ounce of cloves and a stick of cinnamon. Set it on 
the fire, and let it boil till the water is thoroughly impregnated with 
the ginger. Strain the liquor through a jelly-bag, and to every 
pint put a pound and a quarter of pounded loaf sugar. Clarify 
this syrup with white of egg : and as soon as it has boiled up and 
been well skimmed, lay the Cucumbers into it, together with all 
the races of ginger that had been boiled ; and after boiling ten 
minutes, put the whole into a jar, and let it stand two days. 
Drain off the syrup, boil it up again, and boil the Cucumbers and 
ginger ten minutes. Put all back in the jar ; and after standing 
three days, put the syrup and ginger into the pan again, and boil 
till the syrup adheres to the spoon. Then put in the Cucumbers, 
let them boil a quarter of an hour, and return the whole to the jar, 
which must stand uncovered twenty-four hours, and then be 
covered with bladder and white paper. 
Cucumber Salad. —Pare the Cucumbers, and as you slice 
them, score the ends that they may be in small bits as if slightly 
chopped. Add some small young onions also cut small, Cayenne 
pepper, salt; a little ginger, the juice of half a lemon, and some 
vinegar. This will be found an excellent salad, and does not dis¬ 
agree with weak stomachs. 
Cucumber Sauce. —Take two or three small pickled Cucum¬ 
bers, and chop them small; add a little grated lemon-peel, a little 
butter, salt, and pepper, a dredge of flour, with two spoonfuls of 
water, or vegetable broth. Let all these just come to the boil, 
and then stir in two table-spoonfuls of good cream, or some brown 
gravy. It must be served immediately. 
Cucumber Sauce (White).—Peel two small, or one large 
Cucumber, and cut them in pieces. Put them into a stewpan with 
two spoonfuls of water, a tea-spoonful of salt, one of sugar, and 
half a one of pepper. When tender, add a table-spoonful of flour, 
wet with two gills of milk. Boil and serve hot. 
Cucumber Soup.— Make some broth with a neck of mutton, 
a thick slice of lean bacon, and an onion stuck with three cloves, 
a carrot, two turnips, some salt, and a bunch of sweet herbs, and 
strain it. Brown with an ounce of butter the crumb of a French 
roll, to which put four large Cucumbers and two heads of lettuce, 
cut small. Let them stew a quarter of an hour, and add to them 
a quart of the broth; when it boils, put in a pint of green peas ; 
and as it stews, add two quarts more of the broth. 
Cucumbers, Stewed. —Pare four or five large Cucumbers, and 
two middle-sized onions, and cut them into rather thick slices. 
Flour them well, and fry them in butter a nice brown colour. Put 
them into a saucepan with half a teacupful of gravy, or broth, and 
season with pepper, salt, and catchup. Stew them till quite tender ; 
then add a little butter worked in flour, boil a few minutes till of 
a good thickness, and serve hot. 
Cucumber Vinegar. —This is excellent for using with salad 
and cold meat. Put fifteen large Cucumbers, paired and sliced 
thin, into ajar with three pints of vinegar, four onions sliced, 
three shallots, a little garlic, two large spoonfuls of salt, three tea¬ 
spoonfuls of pepper, and half a tea-spoonful of Cayenne pepper. 
Let these stand four days, give the whole a boil, then strain and 
filter the liquor into bottles for use.— Roger Asupole. 
(To be continued.) 
BRITISH POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
An ordinary Meeting of this Society was held on the 
3rd ult., Robert Hogg, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair. 
The following gentlemen were elected ordinary mem¬ 
bers Conrad Wm. Finzel, Esq., jun., Frankfurt Hall, 
Clevedon, near Bristol; G. N. Hunter, Esq., 5, Hereford 
Square, Brompton ; Richard Haines, Esq., 278, Mary- 
lebone Road, Paddington; Mons. Feed. Gloede, aux 
Sablons, Moret-sur-Lonm, France; Mr. Spivey, gardener 
to J. H. Houblon, Esq., Hallingbury Place, Essex. 
It was announced that Mr. Newton, of Enfield Chase, 
desired to offer a prize of half a guinea for the best dish 
of six Cornish Gilliflower Apples, to be competed for at 
the Meeting of November 17th. Mr. Newton, at the 
same time, announced, as a matter of course, that he 
should not himself compete. 
Premiums had been offered by advertisement at this 
Meeting as follows :— 
Two guineas, and one guinea, for the best and second 
best collection of well-kept Apples and Pears, 
three fruits of each kind, accompanied by careful 
descriptions oj the manner in which they have been 
kept. 
The result of this advertisement was one of the largest 
displays of fruit the Society had ever received—and pro¬ 
bably, for the time of year, the most interesting that had 
ever been exhibited in Pears and Apples ; 250 dishes were 
sent of the kinds then in season ; and some of them were 
accompanied by such descriptions of the manner in which 
they had been kept, as satisfied the Meeting that the 
experiment (originally suggested by Mr. Busby at the 
Committee Meeting on the 19 th August) was a very suc¬ 
cessful one. 
The largest and most interesting collection, sent by Mr. 
Rivers, of Sawbridgeworth, contained fifteen varieties of 
Pears and thirty-four of Apples. All were good and 
sound, —not over- kept, as was the case with some of the 
other collections. Unfortunately, however, for its con¬ 
sideration in regard to the premiums, it was not accom¬ 
panied by the information required in the advertisement. 
A letter from Mr. Rivers (which had been delayed in 
the post-office) arrived during the Meeting, and was read 
by the Secretary, containing the following general infor¬ 
mation concerning the mode of cultivation:— 
“apples and pears, 
“ Grown on bushes in the open air in the nursery at Sawbridge¬ 
worth. 
“ Soil. —Clayey loam mixed with calcareous sand resting on 
hard, white clay, with numerous chalk stones. 
“ Site. —About sixty feet above the level of the Stort, a tri¬ 
butary of the sea. 
“ Pruning. —Very slight summer pinching in June and July, 
and shortening leading shoots towards the end of August. 
“ Management. —Taking up the trees biennially in November, 
and replanting them ; cutting off the ends of straggling roots. 
“ Manure. —A quarter of a peck of soot is given to each tree 
in March, on the surface, in a circle three feet in diameter. 
“ PEARS. 
“ Manure. —In replanting, some leaf mould or rotten manure, 
and the calcareous sand common to this district, are given to each 
tree; two shovelfuls of the former and one of the latter, well 
mixed. In March the same quantity of soot, as to Apples, is given 
in the same manner. 
“ The Pears are all on the quince stock, and the Apples on the 
English Paradise .” 
The day after the Meeting the Secretary received the 
following letter from Mr. Rivers, and which he copies in 
this place, as it supplies the information which was desired 
at the Meeting:— 
“ March 3rd, 1859. 
“ Dear Sir, —I forgot to add to my notes on Apples sent, that 
they have been kept in a very old, dry, arched cellar, under my 
packing-shed, the average winter temperature of which is about 
50°. Air is constantly admitted at one end, through a wire 
grating, and flows gently through by the crevices in a very old, 
ill-fitting door at the end opposite to the wire grating. I daresay 
you observed the remarkably fresh state of the Apples. I have 
kept Hawthornden Apples quite sound till May, in this cellar. 
The fruit is gathered, and, without any preparation, placed in 
small wooden compartments, in double and single layers, and 
never touched till wanted. 
“ The Pears were kept in a greenhouse (with Camellias) in new 
flower-pots, covered with pieces of slate. 
“ I am, dear Sir, 
“ Yours truly, 
“ THOS. RIVERS.” 
The Pears were firm, handsome, and well coloured, 
but generally unripe, excepting Bon ClirHien d'Auch, 
