November  7,  1901. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
417 
the  accounts  come  in,  he  is  to  send  in  a  list  to  the  same  office, 
and  receive  in  due  time  a  cheque  for  the  total  amount. 
When  the  bills  have  been  receipted  they  are  returned  to  the 
office,  so  that  the  agent  safeguards  the  financial  part  of  the 
business  for  the  employer. 
In  some  instances  a  lump  sum  is  placed  to  the  credit  of 
the  gardener,  who  writes  out  all  cheques.  But  in  either 
case- every  penny  expended  has  to  be  accounted  for.  After 
such  clear  and  easily  worked  arrangements  have  been  made, 
one  would  think  it  an  extremely  difficult  matter  for  misun¬ 
derstandings  to  arise  between  agent  and  gardener  ;  but  the 
former,  as  a  rule,  is  a  very  ingenious  individual,  and  in  scores 
of  instances  in  which  as  clear  a  contract  as  that  above  indi¬ 
cated  has  been  made,  agents  have,  by  a  slow,  “  Russian- 
like  ”  process  peculiar  to  themselves,  become  firmly  con¬ 
vinced  that  they  have  a  controlling  voice  in  the  management 
of  the  garden.  They  begin  to  put  their  ideas  into  practice 
in  a  very  mild  and  plausible  way  at  first,  but  woe  to  the 
gardener  who  allows  them  to  insert  the  “  thin  edge  of  the 
wedge  ;  ”  when  once  this  is  accomplished,  it  is  either  a 
matter  of  becoming  the  “  puppet  ”  of  the  agent,  or  seeking 
“  fresh  fields  and  pastures  new.”  The  only  satisfactory  way 
of  meeting  their  first  encroachment  is  for  the  gardeners  to 
point  out  respectfully,  yet  firmly,  that  as  they  accept  full 
responsibility  for  everything  connected  with  their  charge, 
they  can  allow  no  interference  except  from  their  employers, 
whose  wishes  it  is  always  their  pleasure  to  carry  out. 
Owing  to  agricultural  depression,  there  has  sprung  up 
during  the  last  twenty  years  an  inferior  type  of  estate  agents, 
men  who  have  very  little,  if  any,  practical  knowledge  of  the 
various  operations  connected  with  estate  management, 
having  passed  the  greater  part  of  their  time  doing  the  clerical 
work  in  the  office,  and  in  due  time  being  promoted  to  the 
position  of  agent,  because  they  proved  the  cheapest  ( ?)  men 
to  be  had.  Such  men  perform  the  part  they  have  been 
accustomed  to  efficiently,  but  when  it  comes  to  the  real  man¬ 
agement  of  an  estate,  they  are  most  expensive  managers, 
and  matters  get  into  an  entangled  condition.  Thousands  of 
pounds  are  annually  wasted  in  this  country  by  such  men  in 
carrying  out  the  work  of  planting  fruit  trees,  shrubberies, 
and  in  the  management  of  woods,  and  yet  these  are  just  the 
types  of  men  who  are  ever  ready  to  find  opportunities  of  in¬ 
terfering  with  the  business  of  head  gardeners  whose  success 
as  cultivators  cannot  be  gainsaid. 
I  could  give  instances  of  such  cases  which  have  come 
under  my  notice  in  recent  years,  but  perhaps  enough  has 
been  written  for  the  present.  I  ought,  perhaps,  to  point  out 
that  I  have  no  personal  grievance  whatever  of  the  above  de¬ 
scription,  but  I  sometimes  meet  with  gardeners  of  the  best 
type  who  are  striving  with  might  and  main  to  maintain  their 
charge  in  the  best  possible  condition,  who  give  every  satis¬ 
faction  to  their  employers,  but  whose  feet,  nevertheless, 
wander  over  a  “  thorny  ”  path,  formed  by  the  “  pin-pricks  ” 
of  agents  who  have  a  wonderful  capacity  for  managing 
everybody’s  business  but  their  own.—  Onward. 
- - - 
Crystallised  Fruits. 
The  manufacture  of  these  sweetmeats  is  really  quite  a  simple 
matter,  coming  easily  within  the  capabilities,  of  the  ordinarily 
clever  housewife,  -while  the  expense  of  preparing  them  is  very 
small.  Of  the  various  fruits  best  adapted  to  this  purpose, 
Peaches,  Pears,  and  Plums,  Pine-apples,  Cherries,  and  Currants 
are  the  most  generally  used,  and  are  prepared  as  follows  :  — Stone 
the  Peaches^  Plums,  &c.,  by  making  a  small  incision  in  the  side, 
through  which  the  seed  is  slipped,  pare  and  quarter  the  Pears, 
and  cut  the  Pine-apple  into  slices,  half  an  inch  in  thickness,  across 
the  fruit.  Weigh  and  allow  an  equal  quantity  of  the  best  white 
sugar,  make  a  rich  syrup,  adding  one  small  cup  of  water  to  each 
pound  of  sugar.  Boil  for  a  few  minutes  together,  then  add  the 
fruit  and  cook  gently  until  clear,  but  unbroken.  Remove  care¬ 
fully  on  to  a  wire  strainer  and  let  it  stand  about  an  hour,  or  until 
perfectly  cold,  then  sprinkle  liberally  with  powdered  sugar,  and 
stand  the  strainer  on  a  dish  in  a  moderately  warm  oven  for  two 
hours.  At  the  expiration  of  that  time,  writes  a  correspondent 
in  “  Good  Housekeeping,”  turn  the  fruit,  sprinkling  as  before 
with  the  sugar,  repeating  the  process  until  the  juice  has  quite 
ceased  to  drip,  and  the  outside  is  dry  and  crystallised.  It  is 
then  removed  from  the  oven  and  allowed  to  get  perfectly  cold, 
before  being  packed  away  in  small  boxes  between  layers  of  waxed 
papers.  Thus  packed  and  stored  away  in  a  dry  place,  it  will 
retain  its  perfect  condition  for  an  indefinite  length  of  time,  form¬ 
ing  a  charming  adjunct  to  the  housekeeper’s  store  of  “  extras.” 
It  is  perhaps  necessary  to  add  a  word  of  caution  in  regard  to 
overheating  the  oven,  the  exact  amount  required  being 
ascertained  by  experimenting,  since  too  great  a  degree  of  heat 
will  most  effectually  change  a  delicious  sweetmeat  into  the 
toughest  of  leather. 
History  of  the  Apple. 
[Continued  from  page  371). 
Continuing  our  remarks  from  page  370,  October  24th, 
we  will  suppose  that  the  Golden  Pippin  of  our  days  is  a 
successive  grafting,  yet  still,  though  in  extreme  decrepi¬ 
tude,  it  has  not  exceeded  the  age  assigned  by  naturalists  as 
that  beyond  which  the  life  of  the  Apple  does  not  extend. 
But  then  another  question  will  arise,  supposing  our  Golden 
Pippin  does  not  appear  to  survive  the  allotted  period.  Who 
will  undertake  to  demonstrate  that  the  Golden  Pippin  of 
1509  still  exists?  It  is  quite  certain  that  a  majority  of 
the  Apples  for  which  the  title  of  Golden  Pippin  is  claimed 
have  no  pretensions  to  the  distinction,  and  more  than  one 
old  person  with  whom  it  was  once  a  favourite  fruit  now 
declare  that  it  is  no  longer  obtainable.  Be  this  as  it  may, 
even  if  the  tree  in  question  has  not  already  departed,  yet 
even  those  who  maintain  that  it  is  still  to  be  found  lingering 
in  our  fruit  gardens,  acknowledge  that  it  is  in  the  last  stage 
of  decrepitude  and  decay ;  it  is  following  the  universal  law 
of  nature  ;  no  organised  creature  shall  endure  through  all 
time.  Grafting  may  postpone  the  arrival  of  death,  as  the 
transfusion  of  blood  will  revive  for  a  while  the  sinking 
animal,  but  the  postponement  cannot  be  for  a  time  inde¬ 
finite  ;  the  day  must  come,  in  both  the  animal  and  the  scion, 
when  its  vessels  shall  be  without  the  energy  to  propel  or 
assimilate  the  vital  fluid,  though  afforded  to  it  from  the 
most  youthful  and  most  vigorous  source.  The  Golden  Pippin 
is  said  to  be  a  native  of  Sussex,  and  to  have  been  first 
reared  at  Barham  Park,  situated  on  the  north  side  of  the 
South  Downs.  The  Dutch  acknowledged  it  to  be  an  English 
Apple  in  their  catalogue  of  fruits,  where  it  is  called  the 
“  Engelsche  goud  Pepping.”  The  French  call  it  "Pippin 
d’Or,”  which  is  a  translation  of  the  English  name.  Worlidge 
notices  the  Golden  Pippin,  and  says,  “  it  is  smaller  than  the 
Orange  Apple,  else  much  like  it  in  colour,  taste,  and  long- 
keeping.”  Evelyn  observes  in  his  Diary,  22nd  October,  1685, 
that  “  at  Lord  Clarendon’s  seat  at  Swallowfield.  Berks, 
there  is  an  orchard  of  1,000  Golden  and  other  cider  Pippins.” 
Catherine,  Empress  of  Russia,  was  so  fond  of  this  Apple  that 
she  was  regularly  supplied  with  it  from  England  ;  and,  in 
order  that  she  might  have  it  in  the  greatest  perfection,  each 
Apple  was  separately  enveloped  in  silver  paper  before  it  was 
packed.— (“  Phillips’  History  of  Fruits,”  34.) 
We  have  already  noticed  the  early  existence  of  Apple 
orchards  in  the  south-west  of  England,  and  we  must  not 
close  this  section  without  some  further  remarks  upon  that 
great  cider  district.  Evelyn  says  that  Herefordshire  alone, 
in  his  time,  was  known  to  produce  annually  50,000  hogs¬ 
heads  of  cider,  and,  proceeding  to  remark  on  some  of  the 
Apples  employed  in  its  manufacture,  states  that  the  Red- 
streak  was  a  pure  wilding,  and  within  the  memory  of  some 
then  (1676)  living  was  named  the  Scudamore’s  Crab,  and 
not  much  known  save  in  the  neighbourhood.  It  is  to  the 
perseverance  of  Lord  Scudamore,  thus  commemorated,  that 
the  orchards  in  that  district  are  indebted  for  some  of  their 
best  varieties.  He  was  our  Ambassador  to  the  Court  of 
France  during  the  reign  of  Charles  I.,  and  he  lost  no  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  collecting  scions  of  the  best  Apples  he  heard  of  on 
the  Continent,  and  transmitting  them  to  his  west-country 
estates.  These  western  county  sources  of  cider  found  an 
able  advocate  in  Dr.  John  Beale,  who  published  in  1657  a 
little  volume  entitled  “  Herefordshire  Orchards  a  pattern 
for  all  England,”  but  only  bearing  on  its  title  page  his 
initials.  He  was  a  native  of  Herefordshire,  which  county  he 
greatly  benefited,  as  Gough  in  his  Topography  records.  His 
family,  which  had  long  flourished  in  Herefordshire,  seemed 
to  inherit  a  zeal  for  the  plantation  of  orchards,  and  the  indi¬ 
vidual  of  whom  we  are  now  sketching  the  biography  was 
fully  gifted  with  the  family  hereditament.  He  so  raised 
and  extended  the  reputation  of  the  orchards  of  his  county, 
and  their  produce,  that  in  a  few  years  it  gained  some 
hundred  thousands  of  pounds  by  the  increased  reputation. 
His  enthusiastic  love  of  the  agricolan  arts  is  manifested  in 
every  one  of  his  writings.  He  was  a  man  of  talent,  and  the 
companion  of  the  men  of  genius  contemporary  with  him. 
