566 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
December  28,  1899 
APPLES. 
Venus  Pippin. 
At  the  meeting  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  held  in  the 
Drill  Hall  on  September  12th  last,  Mr.  W.  J.  Godfrey,  Exmouth, 
staged  Apple  Venus  Pippin  (fig.  99),  to  which  the  Fruit  Committee 
recommended  an  award  of  merit.  It  is  a  handsome,  symmetrical 
fruit  rather  over  medium  size.  The  flesh  is  very  tender,  sweet,  and  of 
a  most  agreeable  flavour.  The  eye  is  half  open,  with  broad  recurving 
segments,  while  the  long  stalk  is  inserted  in  a  shallow  cavity.  The 
colour  is  a  uniform  pale  lemon  yellow.  Relative  to  the  variety  Mr. 
Godfrey  writes  : — “  It  is  a  variety  that  generally  ripens  about  the  end 
of  August,  but  this  season,  hot  and  dry  though  it  has  been,  the  fruit 
has  matured  later.  ‘  Venus  Pippin,’  but  more  commonly  *  Plumdevity,’ 
has  been  known  in  these  parts  for  a  number  of  years,  and  has  been  a 
great  favourite.  It  was  about  the  first  Apple  I  knew  as  a  lad.  It 
seems  very  strange  that  it  has  not  been  known  better,  as  the  tree  is  a 
sure  cropper  in  all  soils.” 
“Too  Large  for  Dessert.” 
This  is  an  expression  one  often  hears  nowadays  applied  to  fine 
large  eating  Apples,  and  somewhere  lately  (I  thought  it  was  in  the 
R.H.S  instructions  for  show  Apples,  but  cannot  find  it),  I  read  that 
Blenheim  Oranges  when  shown  as  “  dessert  ”  Apples  should  not  be 
Fig.  99.— Apple  Venus  Pippin. 
above  medium  size — in  fact  I  understood  that  size  above  the  medium 
would  be  a  demerit,  if  not  a  disqualification.  As  I  do  not  quite  follow 
the  reasoning  in  this  matter,  I  should  like  to  say  a  word  or  two  on 
the  other  side. 
At  our  local  show  the  Apples  shown  as  “  dessert  ”  varieties  have 
generally  been  veiy  small — King  of  the  Pippins,  and  the  like — and  I 
have  thought  sometimes  I  should  want  my  spectacles,  a  good  dissect¬ 
ing  knife,  and  plenty  of  leisure,  in  order  to  get  much  edible  Apple, 
apart  from  the  peel  and  core,  out  of  a  plateful  of  them.  Very  good  ? 
Fine  flavour  ?  Ob,  yes,  I  daresay.  So  are  a  jack  snipe  and  a  brown 
shrimp,  neither  of  which  would  be  the  worse  for  being  a  good  bit 
bigger,  and  those  who  are  not  skilful  carvers  and  manipulators  some¬ 
times  think  the  morsels  you  get  at  last  are  not  worth  the  trouble. 
Dick  Swiveller,  who  considered  himself  no  mean  authority,  affirmed 
that  beer  “  couldn’t  be  tasted  in  a  sip,”  and,  fond  as  lam  of  a  good 
Apple,  I  can  get  very  little  comfort  out  of  one,  where  I  cannot  obtain 
a  reasonable  mouthful  free  of  core. 
Let  not  anyone  think  from  this  tnat  I  am  in  favour  of  size  at  the 
expense  of  quality  and  flavour.  Certainly  not.  For  instance,  if  any¬ 
one  can  tell  me  where  I  can  get  Brussels  Sprout  seed  that  will  yield 
me  the  small,  compact,  firm,  well  flavoured  little  knobs  I  can 
remember  twenty  or  thirty  years  ago,  I  shall  be  much  obliged  to  him. 
No  !  What  I  object  fto  is  that  size  by  itself  should  be  a  demerit 
or  disqualification  in  spite  of  quality  and  flavour. 
It  will  be  said  perhaps,  “  It  is  only  a  matter  of  practical  con¬ 
venience.  At  dessert  guests  will  not  take  large  Apples,  because  they 
are  more  than  they  care  to  eat.  That  is  the  only  reason,  but  a 
sufficient  one  as  far  as  it  goes.”  My  answer  would  be  :  First  of  all, 
that  as  far  I  am  concerned,  though  I  eat  a  good  many  Apples, 
“  dessert  ”  after  dinner  is  about  the  last  time  when  I  should  take  one  ; 
almost  any  other  time  of  the  day  would  suit  me  better.  Next,  that ll 
do  not  remember  a  similar  limit  being  placed  on  Pears;  and  Burely 
Pitmaston  Duchess  and  others  are  often  a  great  deal  bigger  than  any 
eating  Apples,  except  perhaps  Emperor  Alexander.  In  my  own 
family  there  is  a  basket  of  Apples  always  on  the  sideboard,  and  when 
they  are  large  a  budding  knife  is  by  them,  the  ivory  handle  of  which 
will  split,  not  cut  them,  with  very  little  trouble ;  and  if  a  half  is  left 
in  the  basket,  it  does  not  remain  there  long.  Why  should  there  not 
be  such  a  neat  implement  in  the  Apple  dish  ? 
And  lastly,  I  would  point  out  that  of  two  Apples,  one  double  the 
size  of  the  other,  a  half  of  the  big  one  is  a  very  much  more  satis¬ 
factory  item  than  the  whole  of  the  small  one — not  only  because  there 
is  a  larger  proportion  of  free  edible  flesh,  but  also  because  it  is  easier 
to  get  at,  whether  decorously  assayed  with  silver  knite  and  fork  at 
“  dessert,”  or  carried  along  to  munch  at  your  morning  stroll  after 
breakfast. — W.  R.  Raillem. 
The  Home  of  the  Ecklinville. 
Mr.  Alexander  Dickson  having  incidentally  mentioned  that 
the  above  Apple  was  raised  at  Rubane  House,  Kircubbin,  it  was 
pointed  out  to  him  that  the  late  Dr.  Plogg,  who  was  usually  very 
careful  in  his  references,  attributed  the  raising  of  the  popular  variety 
to  a  Scottish  gardener,  Mr.  Logan,  at  Ecklinville,  and  hence  the  name 
of  the  Apple.  Mr.  Dickson  has  obligingly  explained  the  matter  as 
follows : — 
“  Rubane  House  is  a  new  name  for  Ecklinville,  the  old  home  of 
the  Ecklins,  who  are  now  replaced  in  it  by  a  Presbyterian  clergyman. 
Old  Mr.  Logan  was  a  great  friend  of  the  writer’s  grandfather.  We  have 
still  against  a  wall  the  oldest  living  tree  of  Logan’s  Seedling,  which 
was  raised  from  the  same  fruit  as  Ecklinville.”  There  is  thus  no  con¬ 
flict  in  the  statements  after  all. 
Soil  Influence  on  Apples. 
As  affording  evidence  that  the  above  useful  Apple  does  not  succeed 
equally  well  on  all  soils,  one  of  the  moBt  successful  growers  of 
Apples  generally  has  found  it  desirable  to  cut  down  his  Ecklinville 
trees  and  graft  them  with  other  varieties  that  pay  him  better.  The 
soil  is  strong  loam  on  chalk.  A  still  larger  and  equally  successful 
Apple  grower  has  during  the  past  season  found  Ecklinville  his  most 
profitable  varioty,  the  soil  in  this  case  being  rather  light  loam  on 
sandstone. 
Splitting  of  Apples. 
I  found  a  few,  and  only  a  few,  of  such  soft-fleshed  and  thin-skinned 
Apples  as  Peasgood’s  Nonesuch,  Emperor  Alexander,  and  one  or  two 
others  to  split  as  has  been  referred  to.  But  in  a  cool  room,  where 
there  was  neither  firing  nor  gas  in  combustion,  and  the  air  was 
perfectly  pure,  the  splitting  seems  to  have  been  due  to  considerable 
sap  production  in  the  fruits  under  the  influence  of  the  great  autumn 
warmth,  and  then  when  the  fruits  had  been  some  time  stored  in  a 
cool  place  the  sap  hardened,  and  in  doing  so  like  water  under  cold, 
distended,  and  thus  brought  about  the  splitting  seen.  No  ordinarily 
good  keepers  with  thick  skins  were  affected.  Those  fruits  that  did 
split  were  found  to  ‘be  quite  mealy,  thus  showing  that  a  lower 
temperature  had  effected  a  material  change  in  the  flesh.  But  this  not 
uninteresting  fact  leads  naturally  to  the  inquiry,  how  far  a  crop  of 
very  large,  and  because  so  large  necessarily  soft  sappy  fruit,  is  more 
profitable  or  desirable  than  is  a  crop  of  fruits  of  fair  average  size  and 
of  much  firmer  flesh. 
Many  of  these  soft-fleshed  Apples  are  worth  little  for  any 
purpose,  having  parted  with  flavour  and  juiciness  by  the  middle  of 
December,  whilst  other  fruits  smaller  and  firmer  will  keep  sound 
and  juicy  until  the  end  of  March.  Do  we  not  rather  over-worship 
size  in  Apples,  at  the  expense  of  quality  and  keeping  properties  ? 
I  think  so.  But  on  our  show  tables  all  the  finer  fruits  take  pre¬ 
cedence  of  these  of  more  solid  flesh,  because  not  so  large.  How 
useful  would  be  a  few  classes  for  say  six  dishes  of  Apples  in  January, 
and  each  month  down  to  May,  good  keeping  quality  with  cleanness 
and  relative  size  to  be  the  prominent  features  in  awarding  prizes. — 
A.  D. 
CARNATIONS  AT  SUNDRIDGE  PARK. 
Of  present  day  flowers  none  seems  to  show  greater  promise  for  the 
future  than  Malmaison  Carnations,  whose  vogue  or  popularity  is  now 
most  distinctly  on  the  up  grade.  In  establishments  on  all  hands  we 
find  collections  of  greater  or  lesser  pretensions  as  regards  size,  and 
cultivated  with  varying  degrees  of  success.  That  their  requirements 
are  daily  becoming  better  understood  cannot  be  doubted,  and  it.  is 
