87 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, November 8, 1859. 
Franc Real d’Ete. See Summer Franc Real. 
Franc Real Gros. See Anr/Slique de Bordeaux. 
Franc Real d’Hiver. See Winter Franc Real. 
Fbedebic Le Clerc. —Fruit above medium size, short, 
pyriform. Skin green at first, but changing as it ripens 
to yellow; slightly mottled with russet. Eye open, set 
in a shallow basin. Stalk an inch long, woody. Flesh 
yellowish, buttery, melting, and very juicy, sugary, and 
rich. Ripe in November. 
(To be continued.') 
SALTRAM. 
This beautiful seat of the Earl of Morley is snugly em¬ 
bosomed amongst noble trees, with which the park and adjacent 
country are judiciously studded. The western front faces 
Plymouth and its celebrated harbour, but sufficiently removed 
to ensure that privacy so much prized in a country residence. 
The south front forms the principal entrance; the offices being 
attached to the north or north-eastern corner. Altogether, the 
mansion has a prepossessing appearance outwardly; and the 
inside consists of a beautiful suite of rooms richly ornamented 
with pictures and other costly objects, which, like most similar 
collections, have taken several generations to acquire. But my 
purpose is not to dilate on these matters, but to notice some 
features in the garden worthy of imitation—more especially the 
kitchen garden, which is one of the best 1 ever saw ; and, under 
the care of Mr. Snow, the excellent gardener, is well managed, 
and very productive. 
This kitchen garden, like most others, is bounded by good 
high walls: against which the more tender fruits are grown 
to great perfection. A range of glass-houses on the centre of 
the north wall was also in good order, Grapes and other fruits 
being abundant and fine; but the principal feature which in¬ 
terested me was the mode of growing the smaller or common 
vegetables in the kitchen garden on high, broad ridges thrown 
up in lines running east and west, so as to give a considerable 
space of ‘‘ north slope ” to each. This plan, which w'as detailed 
in these pages by our worthy friend Mr. Fish hist year, is worthy 
of more general imitation. As Mr. Snow told me, without 
these slopes he could never have had Lettuce, Cauliflower, and 
other things the past dry season ; but that, by their being 
planted on these ridges, they had a much greater depth of good 
mould to grow in, which on the north side was not so subjected 
to those punishing periods of dry weather from which so 
many parts of England have the past season been suffering. 
On the south side of one of those slopes I noticed a fine bank 
of Violets, giving promise of innumerable bunches of these 
universal favourites in the early spring, or probably, with a little 
shelter, in winter itself. The bulk of the Strawberries was 
grown on the level ground. At the time I was there (the 
middle of August) Mr. Snow was planting out a quantity that 
had been layered in pots. 
It is somewhat remarkable that this, the western part of 
Devon and the adjoining county of Cornwall, had suffered more 
the past season from the want of rain than the oldest inhabitant 
can remember. This is the more singular, as there appears 
to have been no lack of rain in the midland counties; while in 
Kent, and I believe mostly all along the eastern coast, the 
drought has been felt very severely. The garden at Saltram, 
inclining to the north, rendered it, perhaps, less influenced by 
continued sunshine than if it faced the other way; and it also 
gave a longer slope to the north side of those banks than could 
have been given on a level, or where the descent was in the 
contrary direction. It is hardly necessary to say that Applfe 
and other fruit trees were in a thriving state : this most of our 
readers will expect to be always the case in Devonshire, so 
famed for cider and other good things ; but the trees at Saltram 
had also a fair crop of fruit on, which we all know is far from 
general this year ; and by the slight glances I could obtain of 
the orchards in that county, while travelling by railway, I 
should say that Apples were far from being plentiful, although 
more abundant than in most other places. 
On the western side of the mansion, a geometric flower 
garden had been formed,— the beds being on grass. They 
were late, because the long-continued dry weather had checked, 
and, I was told, had almost annihilated them. They had 
shortly before had rain, and were fast recovering and get¬ 
ting nicely into bloom. It was painful to see here that the 
Calceolaria was failing in its usefulness, for plants were dying 
off from the same inexplicable cause complained of elsewhere, 
more especially the dark kinds. The yellows seem to stand 
better. Mr. Snow showed me a bed of Aurea Jloribunda doing 
very well, the plant differing much in habit from the. one I have 
under that name. Another one in the way of C. Kayii, but 
much better, was also promising well; and Verbenas and 
Geraniums promised to speedily become all that could be 
desired. 
A little way from this flower garden was a neat rosery, 
in the neighbourhood of which were some fine plants of Pampas 
Grass. A large space of gravel was also set apart for the 
summer standing of some very fine Orange trees, which seem 
a general feature in Devonshire gardening. Large trees in 
tubs or boxes are sheltered in winter in some place, generally 
with a dark roof, and being brought out in May, form handsome 
objects during the summer; and here there were some fine 
specimens. 
Altogether the place is very interesting; the foreground 
as has been described, looks over the fine harbour of Ply¬ 
mouth with its numerous armlets (one of which runs up 
nearly to this place). The Cornish hills terminate the view 
in that direction ; not the least interesting object that way 
being “ Mount Edgecumbe,” the magnificent seat of the noble 
Earl of that name, and which I should have been saying a few 
words upon, but Mr. Fish has so ably described it in a former 
article; while, to the north of the mansion, the bleak high 
ground of Dartmoor frowns with a sort of forbidding 
sterility on the smiling scene below. The South Devon rail 
passes within a mile or so of Saltram. The Plympton station 
is the most contiguous to it. 
I cannot close this article without noticing an excellent ex¬ 
pedient for preventing weeds becoming troublesome on walks or 
pavements. It was by scattering a little sandy substance over 
them, which the mines in this country furnish, I believe, 
abundantly. I forget the local name it has, but that is of little 
consequence ; neither would the long scientific name the. 
geologist would give it convey much information to the general 
mass of ordinary readers. Suffice it to say, that it appeared like 
a greenish-grey sand; and though chemists, no doubt, would 
deduce many component parts from it, I should say the agent 
which was so fatal to vegetation was copperas. But so plentifully 
was this, or some other poison, blended with it, that Mr. Snow 
told me a very small quantity was sufficient to keep down vege¬ 
tation anywhere; and that b\ using it with discretion, the edgings 
and other things took no harm. A useful mineral poison, 
cheap and efficacious for the destruction of weeds, has long 
been wanted. I only wish this was more widely diffused. I 
have no doubt but it would be extensively used; but existing 
only in the vicinity of mining districts, I fear its use must of 
necessity be restricted.—J. Robson. 
PAMPAS GRASS. 
We have a Pampas Grass here, grown on a light garden soil, 
with a hard clay subsoil. It measures in height nine feet to the 
top of the tallest spike. Seventy-two spikes in all. Measures 
nineteen feet in circumference. Planted two years back in a 
small 60-pot. Never was watered or protected in any way 
further than tying up the Grass to keep it out of the way of a 
path that runs close to it. It is of the grey variety.—S. Dillis- 
tone, Nurseries, Stunner. 
CULTURE OF HOLCUS SACCIIARATUS. 
Hating seen a letter in your Journal of the 26th July last, from 
one of your correspondents, a Mr. George Yule, regarding the 
llolcus saccharatus, I am induced to send you my experience of 
a small crop I grew this year. 
On the 20th of June last I sowed in drills about the eighth 
of an acre of seed, obtained from Wheeler’s, of Gloucester, and 
on the 15th of August the main stems had attained a growth of 
from three to four feet, with broad pendant leaves. These stems 
I freely cut; and since that time until the present frost I have 
been cutting from the crop constantly, and consider it a very 
profitable one. 
I apprehend this grass should not be treated as a soiling crop, 
by being either eaten or mown off, but should be constantly 
thinned out; and this I found succeed remarkably well, as the 
roots branched out freely when the main stems were removed. 
I am so satisfied with the amount of nutriment it afford? for 
