Our Common Fruits; A Descriptive Account of Those Ordinarily Cultivated or Consumed in Great Britain (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1866 Excerpt: ...hero of the day at Manchester was a red-skinned mammoth, (for the red fruit always exceed in size any other) weighing no less than 37 dwts. 7 grs. The parent plant, too, comes in for a share of the honours achieved by its offspring, and brings sometimes no small profit to its owner; for cuttings from plants of reputation are in great request, and thus the division of a single bush not unfrequently secures a sum of 20 guineas, and one has been known to produce, when sold in lots, as much as 32. Greater profit though than can be summed up in pounds or guineas of any amount must accrue to the worthy weaver whose monotonous loom-labours are enlivened with verdant visions of a favourite plant; who devotes his leisure to a recreation necessitating the study of vegetable life and its laws, and who, leaving cruel or debasing sports to workmen of lower tastes, only vies with his fellows in the innocent and useful rivalry as to which can bring to greatest perfection one of the products of their native land. All honour, then, to the fair fruit whose charms have proved so powerful an attraction to this class of the community, and exercised so beneficial an influence upon them. It has called forth, tooAa literature of its own, and besides occupying a large' snare of various gardening publications and local newspapers, a work especially devoted to it appears every year, the Gooseberry Booh being one of the regular Manchester "annuals." Nor is the taste for gooseberry-growing confined to a single county, but has spread, in company with the weavers, over a large tract of countoy, and zealous cultivators may be found throughout Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire. And though weight alone is the all-important desideratum with these northern amateurs, and the ...