BULLETIN DE LA SOCIETE CEXTRALE DHORTICULTURE. 



519 



\\ francs, (about 30 cents,) the women 7-3 

 centimes, (say 15 cents;) the board is not 

 included in the foregoing, — the workmen 



hoard in'. 1 ; themselves. In summer, work 

 commences al six o'clock in the morning, 

 and ends al eighl in the evening for day- 

 taborers ; but the hoys, or apprentices to 

 the market gardens, are up at two o'clock 

 A. M.., loading their wagons with vegeta- 

 hles for the market, where it is necessary 

 that they should arrive at three o'clock — 

 the time when their sales commence. 



The price paid for labor is the same in 

 the nurseries as in the market gardens. 

 Two men to the hectare is the usual force 

 for general nursery culture, though for cul- 

 tures sp/ciales the number is of course much 

 increased. 



It is easy to see that market gardening- 

 is not usually a very profitable business. 

 For the masters, or head gardeners, the ex- 

 penses are considerable, and the labor in- 

 cessant. After having worked a great 

 many years, if they have been industrious, 

 sober, and economical, and if the expenses 

 of the family have not prevented their laying 

 up something, then they buy a little corner 

 of land, (for they only leased what they have 

 been cultivating all their lives,) build a lit- 

 tle cottage or hut upon it, and die there in 

 peace. Or if they have made considerable 

 savings, they often invest it in a small 

 stock of groceries, which the wife keeps and 

 disposes of; and so they finish their old 

 age. As for the common garden workmen, 

 often improvident, and often unable to lay 

 by anything from their scanty earnings, 

 when old age or infirmity overtakes them, 

 they are either taken care of by their chil- 

 dren, or must be supported at the public 

 charge. 



To make this picture, furnished by the 

 interests of the French market gardener, 

 more complete, we must add that the re- 



porter, from which we have extracted the 

 foregoing, in urging the importance of some 

 attention being paid by the government to 

 this species of culture, says — " Is it not tin- 

 culture which furnishes our markets with 

 the vegetables which form the almost 

 elusive subsistence of the poorer class? 

 The higher classes of society consume a 

 great deal of animal food ; unhappily, thr 

 poor mangels nothing but vegetables." " I is 

 a glance," says the reporter, " on the quan- 

 tity of market garden products, the extenl 

 of the land devoted to them, and the num- 

 ber of hands they employ, and you will be 

 convinced of the importance of this branch 

 of agriculture." 



We have heard some complaints from 

 our own market gardeners about New- York, 

 who find their profits lessened by the fa- 

 cility with which steamers and rail-roads 

 bring early vegetables from the south, there- 

 by reducing the price of early peas and to- 

 matoes. But they who will not work for 

 less than 70 to 100 cents a day, who think 

 the fare poor if there is not fresh meat at 

 least once per diem, and who, if they are 

 economical and industrious, may always 

 save enough in half a dozen years to be- 

 come the owners of the land they cultivate, 

 will be thankful, when they read the fore- 

 going account of the condition of market 

 gardeners in France, that their lot is cast in 

 a country where the demand largely out- 

 runs the supply. Happy America ! May 

 it be a long time before the women have to 

 work in the fields, or the poorer classes 

 must live on vegetables ! 



We may remark, on the other hand, that 

 the secrect of making the most of mark''! 

 gardening is not yet so well understood 

 anions us as in France ; since we are told, 

 that by dint of long experiment and prac- 

 tice, " four and five successive crops per year 

 arc now obtained from the same soil." Of 



