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JOUBNAL OF HOETIOULTUBE AND COTTAGE CABDENEB. 



i Decembor 5, 1867. 



tity sent abroad to England, Denmark, Kussia, Sweden, and 

 other colder climates. It is quite as childish to compare the 

 two countries in fruit growing, as it would be to compare the 

 two in the production of coal. Many of my men make as much 

 as 400 francs a-year from their little gardens of fruit, after 

 supplying their own family. This is clear profit, and costs 

 them nothing but labour — Sunday work. England imports, but 

 never exports fruit, excepting a few choice Grapes, while 

 Prance exports but never imports. After living seven years in 

 France, in a district quite near to Paris and by no means so 

 favourable to fruit culture as many other parts that I could 

 name, I have come to the conclusion that in this district 

 fruit culture is better understood by the people in it than 

 in any district in Britain. I leave individual gardens out of 

 the question. No country can boast of private gardens like 

 Great Britain ; but for peoples' gardens, or the great fruit- 

 jjroducing gardens, I give the palm to France. I cannot speak 

 of other countries. Why, go where you will in France, you see 

 pyramid Pear trees even in the most unlikely nooks, around 

 poor little houses. Every Frenchman loves a fruit tree, and 

 will have it, too, let him live where he may. If in a town, he 

 will stUI persist in growing his fruit tree, even in a tub or other 

 vessel. This practice is quite common in quaint old towns, 

 and probably it was this fashion that first suggested the idea 

 of an orchard-house. Grafting on the Quince stock has been 

 practised in France for two hundred years. This fact proves 

 that the French have been fully alive to the question of Pear 

 production and culture for a much longer period than the 

 English, or than is generally supposed." 



This sufficiently proves the inferiority spoken of. The 

 fact that we have great numbers of well-managed noblemen's 

 and gentlemen's gardens all over the country, seems to make 

 bnt a very slight difference. Wo have yet much work to do 

 in this way before we equal the French as Pear-producers ; 

 and I am really astonished, as everybody must be who has 

 read Mr. Eivers's praises of the French cultivators, that he 

 should attack me for contributing my mite towards the im- 

 provement of our fruit cultivation. Itow often has he held up 

 •fean Crapaud as a bugbear to frighten English growers into 

 good habits, and talked of his making his way in the London 

 markets owing to the cultivators of Kent and other parts of 

 England being "fruitgrowers,'' but not " fruit cultivators!" 



-1. He praises Knglish gardening. I never said a word to 

 the contrary, and stated its general superiority in the very 

 paper which drew from Mr. Pavers the article of the 12th of 

 September. Were I to write down the subjects which English 

 gardeners do better than French ones, I should produce a very 

 long list ; bnt the reader will probably agree with me, that to 

 discover any superior mode of culture pursued in France and 

 inform English horticulturists of it, was more appropriate work 

 for one studying the horticulture of that country than praising 

 English gardeners. 



As this style of argument is rather common with Mr. Rivers, 

 and as he has since several times charged me both publicly and 

 privately with "disparaging" English gardeners, the following 

 quotation from Whately is, I think, calculated to have a good 

 effect upon him. I feel that a quotation from " Easy Lessons 

 on Eeasoning " would be more appropriate, but have not. my 

 books at hand. " Yet it is very common to find persons, either 

 out of ignorance and infirmity, or out of malice and obstinacy, 

 joining issue on the question whether this or that ever took 

 place, and representing the whole controversy as turning on 

 the literal truth of something that had never" been affirmed." 

 The qualities of English gardeners are beside the question. 

 To praise them is " needleps excess ;'' but as .=ome of the best 

 and ablest of men have testified to the benefit they have derived 

 from not being above taking a lesson from the humblest and 

 poorest individuals, it would be anything but complimentary 

 to the British gardener if wo supposed him to be above adopt- 

 ng a sensible mode of culture from even such a despised class 

 as the French gardeners are at present in Mr. Kivers's eyes. 



5. The " London Makket Gakdenkr " thought the best part 

 of French Asparagus about as good as "oozeweed." Mr. 

 Eivers must think its flavour better than the English, for he says 

 it is " owing to the brighter sun of France." Both are wrong. 

 French Asparagus cut in the same state and size as British 

 does not differ from it in flavour in any perceptible degree. 

 The excellence of the French in this respect is owing to their 

 growing the plant on a more rational principle than is common 

 with ns, growing it generally much larger, and making it a 

 product which almost every dweller in a large town may enjoy 

 for many weeks in spring— not as with us, where its use is 



confined to the comparatively well-to-do. Even owing to the 

 past dear Exposition season. Asparagus, good and fresh, formed 

 one of half a dozen dishes in some restaurants, where dinners 

 were served for a couple of slullings, including wine. It is 

 true that in the superior restaurants, where the very large 

 Asparagus with the long white stalks is served, you must pay 

 a franc or a franc and a half for a dish of it alone. This mode 

 of cutting, however, is bad, as we all know ; but it is very easy 

 to avoid that when it is so desired. That has nothing to do 

 with the culture of the "grass." Fashion has that particular 

 point under dominion, and as the growers wish to sell her 

 Asparagus they must bring it as she desires. 



0. Mr. Iiivers says our English method of growing salads is 

 far superior, and goes on to say that he derives all his salads 

 from cheap unhealed houses, &c. Now to anybody who has 

 really had and taken an opportunity of knowing how well the 

 French grow all kinds of salad, this assertion of his must fur- 

 nish much amusement. Our production and cultivation of 

 winter salading is utterly contemptible compared to that of tho 

 French. They talk very little about their " superiority," but 

 they take particular care, after furnishing their own markets 

 with an abundance of the best salad ever grown, to supply the 

 enormous demand of London and many other large cities in 

 winter and spring. It may be said that their climate has all 

 to do with this ; but it is not so. Anybody can grow such 

 things in the open air — the greater portion of that sent to our 

 markets is grown under bell-glasses in northern and north- 

 central France, an immense quantity of it near Paris. Any 

 gardener who knows the two countries well will admit that 

 there are many places within fifty miles of London where 

 salads might be equally well-grown. I cannot now enter into 

 details, but I can assure your readers that a well-managed 

 salad-producing garden in the neighbourhood of Paris is, all 

 the year round, one of the most instructive and even beautiful 

 examples of cultivation anywhere to be found. I will spare 

 Mr. Eivers a comparison of its aspect with what I saw of his 

 "choice salads:" but having had a good many useful hints 

 from the very civil and hardworking French gardeners, I pro- 

 mise to inform them generally of Mr. Eivers's " superior " 

 mode of growing winter salads. However, I must, if I wish not 

 to preach vain things, wait till the adoption of his method shall 

 have enabled English gardeners to supply their own markets, 

 and keep in the country tlie vast sum of money which now 

 goes into French pockets for winter salading in this country. 

 I fear I shall have to wait a long time. 



7. I had spoken of the admirable way the French grow tho 

 Peach at Montreuil, and the " London Makeet Gakdenee " 

 attributed their success to other things than the patient and 

 special skill and care they bestow upon it. I replied, " ' A Lon- 

 don Market Gaedenek ' attributes the success of the Peaches 

 at Montreuil to gypsum and ' the power of the climate.' In 

 Lord Charlemont's garden, on the shores of Dublin Bay, where 

 there is no gypsum, and less sun than in Kent, I have seen as 

 good Peaches as ever grew at Ulontreuil ; but, notwithstanding 

 this, it is rarely that you see the Peach in fine condition in the 

 open air with us. He says the system of training makes no 

 difference whatever. Certainly there are several shapes and 

 systems equally good, but the unfortunate fact remains that 

 the Peach is frequently seen, even in first-class gardens in 

 England, straggling with a few shoots over a nearly bare wall, 

 and the mere ghost of what it ought to be, while the walls of 

 the good cultivators at BIontreuQ are covered with fresh green 

 and healthy shoots from top to bottom, and the trees are pic- 

 tures of health and fertility. The fact is the French make a 

 speciality of its culture, know, and thoronghly attend to its 

 wants at all seasons, and therefore succeed. That an equally 

 good result could be produced in many parts not far removed 

 from London, I have no doubt whatever, and shall some day 

 try the experiment. Its special culture around two or three 

 villages within easy reach of Paris causes that city to be flooded 

 with its fruit every year (in good seasons, I am told, they are 

 as cheap as Apples), and I do not see why London should bo 

 so much worse off for this most delicious and refreshing of all 

 the fruits that grow with us in the open air." 



Now, perhaps this may have been a little too pronounced, 

 but I was replying to one who but for his professed calling I 

 should have deemed unworthy of reply, so thoroughly em- 

 phatic was ho in his ignorance. However, the fact is that the 

 Peach as a wall tree is comparatively neglected with ns to what 

 it ought to be. I am not stating my own opinion here, but 

 that of good cultivators of the Peach — Mr. Thompson, the 

 veteran fruit grower of Cbiswick, and author of our best recent 



