1881. ] 
THE STIRLING CASTLE APPLE.-ASPARAGUS ON CLAY SOIL. 
153 
THE STIRLING CASTLE APPLE. 
[Plate 548.] 
# UR plate of this sterling variety was 
drawn last autumn by Mr. Fitch, from 
specimens kindly supplied by Mr. F. 
N. Dancer, of Turnham Green. It is not too 
much to say, and our illustration will bear us 
out in this remark, that it is one of the finest 
of all early kitchen apples ; and it possesses 
another quality, of the utmost importance to 
the grower—namely, that it is a heavy and a 
certain cropper. It has proved about London 
to be so exceptionally reliable in this respect, 
that it might almost be permitted to speak of 
it as a “ perpetual ” bearer. Mr. Dancer has 
again had it this season in exceptionally fine 
condition, quite small trees having been 
heavily laden with fruit, so that the 
branches were weighed down to the ground 
with the grand fruit with which they were 
thickly studded from base to apex. Mr. 
Dancer, indeed, speaks of it as one of the best 
and most remunerative apples that a market- 
crardener can grow, and asserts that if he were 
desirous of planting several acres of apples, he 
would confine the planting almost wholly to 
the Stirling Castle. It is in all respects an 
excellent second early culinary apple, coming 
into use in September. Moreover, it does well 
as a bush tree, and in that form is so largely 
grown by Mr. Dancer. 
It is only during the past few years, when so 
many old favourites have sustained more or 
less severe damage from the severity of the 
seasons, that the high merits of this variety 
have been fully recognised. It is of Scotch 
origin, having been raised in a garden near 
Stirling Castle, where the original tree, we 
believe, still exists. Both in the North and in 
the South it is held in great repute as a free- 
bearing culinary apple. It may be described 
as intermediate in character, between Small’s 
Admirable and Hawthornden ; but though 
ripening early, it keeps long in condition, being 
useful till after Christmas, and on this account 
is much to be preferred. 
The fruits are large, regular in outline, 
roundish-oblate, or somewhat flattened. The 
skin is of a pale green, becoming yellow when 
ripe, and having a pale flush of pale orange- 
red on the cheek exposed to the sun. The 
stalk is rather slender, about an inch loner, set in 
a broad, deep, very evenly rounded basin ; and 
the eye is small, half-closed, and also set in a 
deepish hollow, which is frequently covered 
with a patch of russet, giving it a somewhat 
singular appearance. The flesh is white, very 
tender and juicy, and having a pleasant, sub¬ 
acid flavour, resembling, as Dr. Hogg remarks, 
that of the Hawthornden. 
The tree, as already stated, is a very heavy 
and almost certain cropper, and is exceedingly 
well adapted for the bush form of culture. It 
is so good and useful an Apple, that those who 
have it not should procure it, either in the form 
of young trees, or as grafts to replace such in¬ 
ferior sorts as may have been accidentally 
planted, and have already become well 
established.—T. Moore. 
ASPARAGUS ON CLAY SOIL. 
HERE there’s a will there’s a way, and 
this [September] is the best time to 
plant Asparagus. This sea and sand- 
loving plant does not like a cold clay soil, and it 
may be (but should not be) a hard task to make 
a fine plant, wherefrom to cut fat sticks, on a 
soil that may be compared to wet putty in winter 
and Babylonian brick in summer. Before I 
became a Hermit, the heavy undrained clay at 
Hermitage had never borne a crop of Asparagus, 
but as I brought with me the experience of a 
quarter of a century of horticultural work on the 
worst soils that could be found in Stoke New¬ 
ington, I ordered a beginning to be made for 
Asparagus at the upper end of a piece of very 
wet grass land, that sloped very slightly from 
the site selected towards the natural flow of the 
water. The first step taken was to sow a bed 
in a sheltered garden a furlong distant, where 
we could not afford room for our bearing beds, 
the only object being to obtain plants to begin 
with. The rule determined on was to form 
two beds every year until a certain space was 
covered, each bed to be 4 feet wide and GO feet 
long, on a foundation of unmitigated clay, a 
considerable piece of which was to be converted 
into a kitchen and reserve garden. 
We next had carted in, for “ a mere song,” 
