392 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



upon the most extensive and magnificent plan. This market 

 comprises not only the great fish market of Paris, but also the 

 egg market, the butter and cheese markets, the potato market, 

 the onion market, and the general vegetable and fruit markets. 

 The sellers, with scarcely an exception, are women, very sharp, 

 very busy, and of course very talkative. Looking down upon 

 the whole area from the magnificent fountain in the centre, it 

 would be difficult to find a more gay and animated scene. The 

 fountains in Paris are one of its most remarkable features ; and 

 no principal market is to be found without its continually-flow 

 ing fountain. 



The vegetables, butter, eggs, fish, and many other things, are 

 always disposed of at auction early in the morning to the retail 

 dealers. The vegetables in Paris are excellent. Carrots, and 

 turnips, and onions, are not so large as in England and the mar 

 kets of the United States, because the French deem the large- 

 sized vegetables not so good for eating as the smaller-sized. It 

 is remarkable, likewise, that there is hardly any season of the year 

 when almost any description of vegetables may not be found in 

 the markets of Paris ; and in the middle of December, green peas, 

 asparagus, string beans, and strawberries, may be purchased in 

 quantities, which shows the perfection to which the art of gar 

 dening is carried among them. 



The fruits exposed in the markets of Paris are of a superior 

 quality, pears especially, for which the French have long been 

 celebrated. The St. Michael and the St. Gerrnaine pears, which, 

 in the United States, have almost wholly failed, from having, as 

 has been supposed, completed their period, are here still in per 

 fection, which would seem to contradict this theory, and leave 

 some other cause to be discovered for the extraordinary failure 

 of these excellent fruits. I have not been able to ascertain any 

 thing in respect to the culture of any of these articles, which is 

 not familiarly known to all cultivators. 



4. MARKET FOR FORAGE. I have spoken of the grain market 

 in Paris ; it has likewise its hay and forage markets, where ex 

 tensive sheds for protection against the weather are furnished. 

 These articles, as in England, are sold in small bundles of a 

 fixed weight. I shall, perhaps, surprise some of my American 

 readers if I inform them, that hay, in small packets or bundles, 



