THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, August 31, 1858. 345 
Muscle section, said to be hardy, a great bearer, and 
much valued in the market for preserving purposes ; 
the fruit is oval, stone adhesive, and flavour much 
resembling the Wine Sour. It was considered worthy 
; of being more extensively cultivated. 
Mr. Lane, of Berkhampstead, brought the Wash¬ 
ington Plum, from a wall in remarkably fine condition. 
APPLES. 
Mr. A. Godwin, of Ashbourne, sent specimens of 
two varieties, that are esteemed in Derbyshire first- 
class, new, kitchen varieties. 
Lord Suffield, which was sent also by Mr. Turner, 
of Slough, to the last Meeting, is considered an im¬ 
provement on the Keswick , which it much resembles 
in its conical form, close eye, and pale green colour; 
it is equal in earliness and productiveness ; less acid; 
and its superior solidity renders it less subject to be 
bruised when gathered and harvested, and makes it 
keep longer in good condition. 
Closeburn’s Seedling, a variety, in form and ap¬ 
pearance, much resembling the New Haivthornden : 
and, that it may be compared with this at the next 
Meeting, Mr. Godwin has been requested to send it 
again. The skin is thin, core small, and flesh firm. 
The flesh boils into a perfectly white, slightly subacid 
pulp. 
Mr. F. Dancer sent some fine Cellini Pippin. 
This very excellent culinary variety is reported to be 
losing favour in many districts on account of its canker¬ 
ing. It would be very desirable to ascertain exactly 
in what localities, soils, and exposures, this tendency 
has evinced itself; and the Council will thank every 
member who possesses this kind to communicate, be¬ 
fore the next meeting, his experience regarding it, at 
the same time stating full particulars concerning the 
circumstances under which it is grown. 
Many other fruits of various kinds were sent to be 
named. 
THE APPLE—ITS HABITS, CULTURE, &c. 
(Continued from page 327.) 
Want of space in our last number prevented our 
continuing the observations on fungi,—that pest of the 
Apple trees, making them look, occasionally, as though 
they had been scorched. 
The matter of soil has certainly something to do 
with their production, for, assuredly, hot and dry 
soils, and a long continued dry atmosphere, are 
eminently productive of them. Here preventive 
I measures may be brought to bear ; and here it is, as 
in many other cases, that sound loams, by furnishing 
a permanency of moisture, prevent their ravages. As 
to remedial measures, the water-pot, in liberal hands, 
must be resorted to. 
In Diseases , we have the canker and the withering 
of shoots, or portions of shoots. As to canker, that is 
generally understood to be incurable ; at least, nobody 
has hitherto been able to extirpate it from such kinds 
as the Ribston Pippin, although innumerable remedies 
have been tried. However, it so happens that cankered 
trees frequently continue to bear very well, and are 
worth retaining. This is often the case with the 
Ribston Pippin, which sometimes produces the finest- 
looking fruit from the most cankered boughs ; indeed, 
the same may be said of many other kinds. When, 
therefore, such, trees arc considered worth retaining, 
the only thing that we can do, is to simply prune 
away those which have become unprofitable. Appli¬ 
cations of cowdung, lime, and loam, have been sug¬ 
gested as encouraging new bark; but, although such 
be the case, the fire still smoulders beneath. 
The withering of the shoots is altogether another 
affair. I speak here of the withering of the extremi¬ 
ties of the shoots. This frequently happens in trees of 
every age, from the circumstance of their roots having 
descended into a bad subsoil. Now, a solid and dryish 
clay is not a bad subsoil, neither do I conceive is a 
pure sand; but there are other kinds of subsoils of 
a mixed character, and not unfrequently of a mixed 
colour, and which, occasionally, hold much water: 
these are practically termed sour soils. Such have a 
strong tendency to produce these disastrous effects. 
They are, I think, rarely produced by surface soils. 
But we often see young trees, which have never pene¬ 
trated the subsoil, decaying at the points; this, as far 
as I know, is chiefly confined to kinds, and may be 
classed with the canker. 
I well remember that about forty years since there 
was a great panic round London as to the Apple ques¬ 
tion. People said that all Apples were wearing out. 
There were no crops for two or three years, and the 
trees blighted and cankered amazingly. The American 
blight, also, began to make a great noise ; and many 
blue - aprons affirmed that it was introduced from 
America, through the medium of the American Poplars. 
How this came to be current, I know not, neither can 
I flatly contradict it. 
As to canker, it was a custom in some nurseries, 
when a standard Ribston or some other kind cankered, 
so as to be unsaleable, to cut off the head to a toler¬ 
ably low level, with the observation that it would 
make a capital dwarf. I well remember the intro¬ 
duction of the Hawtliornden: a great fuss it made, 
and deservedly so, for the trees produced, for a few 
years, most splendid crops. But they were short¬ 
lived, and after a run of about a dozen years people 
began to complain bitterly of the canker. Since then 
they have gradually crept out of cultivation. The 
wearing out of Apples has been a much debated 
question; the same as the wearing out of Potatoes. 
Now that the latter do wear out, or become so utterly 
unprofitable and worthless as to be superseded by 
other kinds, which, at first, produce not a Potato 
more per acre than did their progenitors, is a certain 
fact. Well, this is either wearing out, or something 
equivalent; perhaps some other title would be more 
palatable. And so with the Apples : they have not 
failed for lack of good soil; our Ribstons have not 
been neglected,—pampered, indeed, at times they more 
often have been. R. Errington. 
GREENHOUSE BOILER ABOVE GROUND. 
I 
I wish to heat a glass-house,— say about 60°,—with hot j 
water. The house is twenty-five feet long, twenty feet wide, J 
eleven feet to the drip, raised from the ground about one foot 
on large stones, and a wooden floor. Can it be done without 
digging any hole for the boiler, &c. ? I know it would look 
unsightly above the ground, but I do not mind that. What 
quantity of pipe would it take ?—A Subscriber. 
[When you contemplate heating only one house from a 
boiler, there is no objection, if you wish it, to have the 
boiler and furnace above gromid. In some cases it is very 
desirable,—as where water is found near the surface. Heat 
may also be economised by having the boiler inside the house, 
and the furnace door merely outside. In such circumstances 
care should be taken that all the pipes are as high, better if 
higher, than the level of the boiler, To keep such a house at 
GO 0 in winter, which we presume is what you mean, would 
require the best part of 100 feet of four-inch pipes. Of course, 
to secure that heat from May to November, half the quantity, 
or about sixty feet, would do. The circulation will be greater 
if the lowest pipe in the house is as high as the top of the 
boiler; if higher, all the better.] 
