THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, October 18, 1859. 
43 
own way; all the assistance they have derived from man being 
some occasional lopping and the advantage of a prop here and 
there under their long projecting branches when the fruit grew 
heavy, to save them from snapping short with their burdens. 
You note that one of the old trees has fallen flat on its side, not¬ 
withstanding these timely props; perhaps it was overthrown 
by some equinoctial storm. But, fallen and prostrate though 
it be, the gallant old “ russet ” has no thought of dying : instead 
of doing so, it has shot out new roots along the whole length of 
its trunk into the ground below, and new branches into the air 
above, and is bearing a famous crop of russetings, as well on the 
old limbs as the new. Some of the ancient trees which yet 
stand firm in the ground present the most grotesque figures to 
the view; you would think, to look at them, that it was im¬ 
possible they should ever bear fruit, so ragged, broken, decayed, 
bulbous and distorted are their trunks and larger branches—so 
mossy with age, and so gouty and crippled in tire limbs; yet 
there is the fruit, ripe, mellow, and ruddy, hanging upon them 
by bushels, and bending by its weight the sturdy props put up 
to sustain it. The ground you tread on is more a carpet of 
spongy moss than a sward of grass; but you can scarcely see 
what it is, for the piles of Apples which cover it thickly in so 
many places, and to which fresh accumulations are being heaped 
every moment. A company of men and young girls are busy in 
shaking down and plucking the ripe fruit from the trees ; ladders 
are carefully placed against the branches, while some of the 
younger and more active lads have climbed into the more top¬ 
most boughs, inaccessible by any other means, and, rifling them 
of them treasures, drop them as they gather them into the 
baskets or aprons of the girls beneath. The baskets as fast as 
they are filled are emptied to increase the heaps upon the ground; 
and as soon as one tree is stripped of all its blushing honours, 
the merry w'orkers, with many a laugh and time-honoured joke, 
.move on with their ladders and baskets to the next to repeat the 
process. As for the Apples, which are all destined to be made 
into cider, they will lie on the ground in the orchard for some 
days, perhaps even for some weeks, until the frosts, which are 
now pretty regular during the hour or so that precedes the dawn, 
have laid hold of them, and changed a portion of their substance 
into substance of a more saccharine quality, and thus perspectively 
improved the flavour of the cider that is to be. At the right 
time the Apples will be thrown into the mill and ground into 
pulp or “must;” the “must” will be enclosed in hair-cloths, and 
subjected to the squeezing of the cider-press; and the juice 
being led olf, will have to undergo the ticklish processes of fer¬ 
mentation and fining, and, according to the care, watchfulness, 
and ability brought to bear upon the business, may either turn 
out a delicious nectar, almost equal to the fruit of the Grape, or 
a sour, acrid, smatch-ridden beverage, tolerable only to rustic 
palates. The business of cider-making is always one of consider¬ 
able uncertainty, and appears to be but indifferently understood 
even in the cider-making districts, if we are to judge from the 
constantly varying flavour and value of the products of the same 
localities in different years. Perry is made from Pears by a pro¬ 
cess analagous to, and almost the same in detail, as that which 
converts Apples into cider; but its results are said to be from 
year to year more certainly satisfactory. To the fanciful eye, 
nearly all the trees of the field appear loaded with fruit in 
October; the leaves have now the mellow look of ripe Apples, 
and are tinged with red and brown hues, which, as the month 
grows older, take the place of the green and supersede it alto¬ 
gether. This is a favourite season with the artist, who likes now 
to take his colours into the woods, and copy the gorgeous tinting 
which heralds the fall of the leaf and the coming of winter. 
That clear transparency in the air, which was so remarkable last 
month, now begins to give place to mists, which are the result 
of partial congelation, and which, from the cool tone they impart 
to the atmosphere, heighten by contrast the effect of the warm 
hues of the foliage. The sky, where not cloudy, grows of a 
deeper blue; banks of rain-clouds are seen forming near the 
horizon, and in all the aerial phenomena of tins month there is a 
striking resemblance to those of April—with the exception, how¬ 
ever, that the changes from wet to dry, from sunshine to shower, 
are not so frequent nor so sudden. Sometimes there is another 
exception, and it is a welcome one when it comes : it will happen 
now and then, that so soon as the equinoctial gales have blown 
off, the weather remains calm, sunny, and almost cloudless during 
nearly the whole of the month. This state of things, however, 
though highly acceptable, is not so frequent in our climate as it 
is on the continent, or in the back settlements of North America, 
in which last-named region, indeed, it occurs with undeviating 
regularity, and affords an excellent opportunity to the inhabitants 
to prepare for the rigours of their long season of frost. When, 
after a week or two of this second summer there comes a sudden 
change of wind, bringing showers and gloom, we seem to step all 
at once into the horrors of winter. The dead leaves shower 
down in masses, covering the ground; among them lie the 
acorns, the beech-mast, and the split prickly globes of the horse- 
chestnut, with the polished red-brown fruit shining like gems in 
the soft muddy soil. At this crisis, the farmer and the breeder 
who has the privilege of doing so will turn his swine into the 
forest, that they may fatten upon the spoils which autumn 
scatters thus liberally upon the ground. These hungry, all- 
devouring gentry are sometimes in the charge of a swineherd, 
who will rear with hurdles a short fenced fold for their reception 
at night, and lead them out to the pastures by day. In a little 
time the pigs learn to do without his guidance, and will wander 
for miles foraging for themselves, returning invariably at sun¬ 
down, each in the rear of some experienced hog, to the shelter of 
the fold. They are not very ceremonious on these occasions ; we 
remember, one fine October day, being seated at a pic-nic nutting 
dinner, when, turning a glance towards a fine large pound-cake, 
which was waiting for the dessert, we beheld it in the act of dis¬ 
appearing down the throats of a dozen young porkers, who had 
nosed it Irom a distance, and who could only be prevailed upon 
to retreat by a shower of camp-stools launched at their heads 
from a dozen hands at once. A month in the forest at this 
season of “mast and pannage” does a good deal for piggy in the 
way of qualifying him for the butcher. The reader may perhaps 
remember that this mode of fattening swine is as old as any 
custom of this country—much older than our laws, or even our 
oldest ruins : it was common among our Saxon ancestors, and is 
frequently mentioned in “Domesday Bokc.” —{TheLeisure Hour .) 
Eider Down Geese. —The red soldiers patrolling the fortress 
look, from a distance, like spiders of cochineal on a gigantic 
Cactus. But what are they watching? They guard lialf-a- 
million of Eider geese, the property of the Danish Queen, nest¬ 
ling in the precipices of the rocks, cracks and tide-caves, in all 
the most inaccessible places. The gathering of the down of these 
privileged geese is attended with numerous dangers, but brings to 
the Queen about £3000 annually,—every goose about lk/.; hence 
they are honoured as were formerly their Roman sisters : no one 
is allowed to kill, disturb, or even calumniate them; they often 
alight upon the sentinels’ shoulders, and though the poor soldier 
may be very hungry, which often happens in Denmark, yet he 
must not so much as look wistfully at her Majesty’s goose, how¬ 
ever plump and tempting.—( Dissolving Views.) 
TRADE LISTS RECEIVED. 
A Trade List of Nursery Stock, by Dillistone and Go., 
Stunner, "Essex, is a quarto sheet, and contains an enumeration 
and prices of such nursery stock as these gentlemen have to offer 
in the trade. 
William Chater's List of Superb New Double Hollyhocks, 
Saffron Walden Nursery, 1859—60. This is an octavo pamphlet, 
describing the new varieties of this favourite flower, and for 
which the Saffron Walden Nursery is so celebrated. All the new 
seedlings are described, and selections are furnished of the best 
varieties already in cultivation. 
A Catalogue of Plants, Trees, Shrubs, cfc., cultivated for sale 
by Rickard Bradley and Son, Halam Nursery, near Southwell, 
Notts, is a well-arranged pamphlet of fifty-two pages, well got 
up, but rather blemished with orthographical errors, evidently 
arising from oversight. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Vegetation in the Island of Lews. —We have received (Oct. 14) 
from Sir James Matheson, Bart., of Lews, a box containing flowers of 
Rhododendron ponticum and of the Scotch Laburnum, which were grown 
in the open air in that far northern island of the sea. Had we been told 
that such things were we should hardly have believed them ; but, true it 
is that while we in the south are drawing near our warm firesides, the 
chief of the Lews is regaled with summer delights from his shrubbery at 
Stornoway Castle in the Hebrides. 
Gardening Book for India (IF. T .).—As giving directions for the 
general practices of gardening applicable to all parts of the world, Mack¬ 
intosh’s “ Book of the Garden,” and Loudon’s “ Encycloptedia of Gar¬ 
dening,” will give you full and sound advice. Thereis a little volume by 
Mr. Speede, “ The Handbook of Indian Gardening,” with will he useful. 
Messrs. Smith & Elder perhaps have a copy. 
