November 19, 1868. ] 



JOUItNAL OF HOUTIGDLTUEE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



375 



MARKET GARDENING ABOUT LONDON AND 

 ,.-.., PARIS.— No. 2. 



ITH regard to the vast superiority of the 

 French market gardeners in the production 

 of various kinds of vegetables and fruits 

 much has been written, and, at tlie same 

 time, the habits of the French themselves 

 have been extolled as so much better than 

 our own ; on looking at the whole suliject, I 

 am inclined to think that after all it is a 

 matter of demand and supply, and that the 

 habits are simply those which difference of cliraato to a 

 great extent brings about. We are told how far ahead they 

 are of us in the production of winter salads and Asparagus, 

 Pears and Peaches, while contrasts are drawn between our 

 more meaty banquets and their larger supply of vegetables 

 and fruits. Now, the character of a nation's food depends 

 to a great extent on the character of the climate. The 

 Esquimaux of the Ai-ctic circle knows nothing of vegetable 

 food, and were the finest productions of French and English 

 gardens to be jjlaced before him he would prefer his lump 

 of whale's blubber or seal's fat, and to him the greatest treat 

 is the reeking carcase of some fresli-killed walrus. And 

 why is this " We may turn away with disgust from the very 

 idea of it, but he has learned in that cold and bleak climate 

 by experience, what science ' teaches us — that nothing so 

 tends to generate the caloric he needs, and the white man, 

 who, like poor Dr. Kane, has the misfortune to be shut up 

 in those dreary regions, soon learns that he, too, must 

 abandon his moi'e civilised food, and " do at Rome as Rome 

 does." 



Our own climate, although in winter not so cold, perhaps, 

 as Paris in the actual lowness of temperature, has yet that 

 ■which makes it far more trying in the constant damps and 

 fogs to which we are surrendered ; the air of Paris, espe- 

 cially, being dry and thin. I am assured by a friend, 

 whose name is honoured wherever gardening is known, 

 that, from a record of temperature he ki^pt for many years, 

 there is very little diiference in the degrees of cold in 

 London and Paris up to the end of April ; and yet the 

 Frenchman, who is doomed to spend a winter in London, 

 looks forward to it with feelings of dread, as if he were 

 about to be consigned to Dante's " Piirgatorio ;" it is the 

 terrible hrouiUard which frightens him, and so terrible 

 does he think it. that nine out of ten Frenchmen believe 

 nearly all London is on the verge of suicide in the early 

 pai't of winter. Now, this does to a great extent regulate 

 our habits of eating and drinking. Notwithstanding that you 

 may now get claret as cheap nearly in London as in Paris, 

 how few there are who will drink it in the winter months. 

 " Nasty cold stuff," says lusty John Bull, who prefers his 

 foaming tankard of ale or his fruity port ; albeit dread 

 " podagra " lurks within the cup. As to salads, oh ! the very 

 thought sends a shudder through him ; he may condescend 

 to take a bit of Celery with his cheese, for it is warm and 

 aromatic, but I have often noticed at tables where the salad 

 was a constant adjunct, that not one-half of the guests par- 

 took of it, and I believe that dread of all sorts of " internal 



Mo. SW.-VoL. XV., New Szkieb. 



commotions," and not taste, leads to the refusal of it. And 

 so with fruits, most people think after the beginning of 

 October Pears are over, and at a dessert dried fruits 

 are almost always preferred. Now, cross the Channel, 

 and things are different: the almost universal beverage 

 winter and summer is the thin viii ordiiniirc. while no 

 Frenchman high or low would consider liis diciiu complete 

 without a salad, but without that he is a considerable eater 

 of flesh. What with his ci'>tK>lettes, roti, ragouts, &c., twice 

 a-day, he does pretty well. i-- ' ■ -^ -^ - 



Go further south. The Spaniard with his Water Melon 

 and his oUa jKnlriilit, or the Neapolitan with his maccaroni. 

 would consider the Frenchman decidedly carnivorous ; his 

 warm climate does not necessitate the heating food of the 

 more northern nations, indeed, 'it would be positively 

 injurious to him ; while in the tropical climes of India 

 and Africa animal food almost ceases to be an article of 

 diet, and Rice, tho, very thinnest of all the cereals, is suffi- 

 cient for his wants. Now, it would be very absurd for the 

 Hindoo to laugh at the Frenchman, and speak of his 

 animal tastes, and equally iibsurd I think it i.s to hold up 

 the more refined tastes of the Frenchman, because he is 

 a greater vegetable eater than the Englishman. 



Now, all this must, considerably affect the supply of food. 

 Although a vast iraprovcmnnt has taken place in the qua- 

 lity of meat in the Paris market, yet in vain will you look 

 for the wonderful triumphs of the feeder's skill that 

 everywhere meet you in Loud(.m ; but go into the veptable 

 markets, and you are at, vmce ajrucjv with the difference. 

 We have, it is true, uo.plnce save dear, dirty, dingy Covent 

 Garden to display oiu- productioiLS ; we lack the truly mag- 

 nificent Halles Ceat,rales, but with all that you sec at once 

 the difterence. In Paris salads of various kinds abound in 

 winter — Chicoree, which, remember, is Endive, of wonderful 

 size and whiteness : harhc ile ca p i< oin, v/hich is really the 

 blanched shoots of Chicory ; Lettuce, both of the Cabbage 

 kind and Cos, or snlnth^ Rommne, as it is called there, are 

 brought to perfection. But, then, you never see a head of 

 Celery worth looking at. nor in summer a Cucumber that 

 would be tolerated in any English garden, save at such 

 shops as Potel &Chabot's in the Boulevards, or Chevct's in 

 the Palais Royal, and these are evidently imported ; the 

 French care little for either one or the other. A salade do 

 Ciitcri is about as uninviting a iwoduction as you can weU 

 imagine, and as they have not yet learned the value of a 

 Cucumber with salmon or fish in general, it is uncnred for. 

 Shall I, then, because the market gardeners of Brentford 

 and Fulham can produce Celery which might well serve 

 for a marshal's baton, or Cucumbers to be measured by the 

 foot, say that all this evidences the vast superiority of 

 English market gardening'? No ; I say it is simply cause 

 and effect, demand and supply. I know it may be said, 

 " But do we not import large quantities of salad in winter 

 from Paris, and does not th.at prove that it is in demand, 

 and would pay to grow '.' " I do not quite see this. Many 

 families have learned to value winter salads, but the great 

 mass of the people do not, and it would no more pay, I 

 believe, for London market gardeners to force sa lading 

 than it woidd their Parisian brethren to grow Cucumber?. 



No. 1051.— Vol. XL., Old Sebies. 



