368 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



shows how much they are eaten. One would be disposed to 

 consider them as the favorite vegetable of the English. The 

 early ones of course are forced in hotbeds and transplanted ; 

 and a constant succession is kept up. I have sometimes seen in 

 the market, at one time, very early in the morning, many large 

 four-horse wagon-loads of cabbages, lettuces, and rhubarb, all 

 distinct, and piled up in the most beautiful manner, with a pre 

 cision which is admirable ; and when I have had the curiosity 

 to inquire how many heads of cabbage were on a single load, 

 the answer has been, two hundred and twenty-five dozen. 



The celery brought into market is, like the rhubarb, gigantic. 

 The solid-stalked is greatly preferred. It is finely blanched. It 

 is not so agreeable for eating as a smaller-sized plant, but it 

 shows the perfection of cultivation. The celery, like the 

 rhubarb and the lettuce, is brought into market in the neatest 

 manner. Nothing is tumbled into the carts, or thrown out upon 

 the ground topsy-turvy, or indiscriminately. Even the heads of 

 lettuce are every one of them tied with a string of bass matting ; 

 and when presented in the stalls, the various articles are arranged 

 with great care I may add, with taste, and a view to effect. 



In looking down from the high bridge, in Edinburgh, upon the 

 vegetable and fruit market below, and observing the arrangement 

 of the different articles in the stalls, the intermingling of the 

 white cauliflowers with the purple cabbages, the orange carrots, 

 the yellow turnips, and the red beets, and other articles of 

 various hues, like the colors in a Turkey carpet, the effect is 

 really picturesque and beautiful. I have gazed at them repeat 

 edly with much pleasure. The same remarks apply to the 

 arrangements in the London markets. I know some will say. 

 What is the use of all this ? I have just given the answer. It 

 gave me, and it gives others, pleasure. That is reason enough, 

 if there were no other. I think in this respect we have a good 

 deal to learn. There is a natural concord or harmony among all 

 the senses, and the stomach seems better satisfied when that 

 which enters it gives pleasure to the eye. Suppose that our 

 fine rare-ripe peaches were a dingy black, instead of presenting, 

 as they now do, a sample of that most lovely and perfect inter 

 mingling of colors to be found in nature such as the soft blend 

 ing of red and white in the leaf of the damask rose, or, in a still 

 more radiant form, on the cheek of virgin beauty and innocence: 



