64 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



always the stumbling-block of those who write about 

 agriculture the fact is that in market-gardening the 

 soil is always made, whatever it originally may have 

 been. Consequently we are told by Prof. Dybowski, 

 in the article " MaraTchers " in Barral's Dictionnaire 

 d Agriculture it is now a usual stipulation of the rent- 

 ing contracts of the Paris maraichers that the gardener 

 may carry away his soil, down to a certain depth, when 

 he quits his tenancy. He himself makes it, and when he 

 moves to another plot he carts his soil away, together 

 with his frames, his water-pipes, and his other belong- 

 ings.* 



I could not relate here all the marvels achieved in 

 market-gardening ; so that I must refer the reader to 

 works most interesting works especially devoted to 

 the subject, and give only a few illustrations.f Let 

 us take, for instance, the orchard the marais of M. 

 Ponce, the author of a well-known work on the culture 

 mar at Mr e. His orchard covered only two and seven- 

 tenths acres. The outlay for the establishment, including 

 a steam engine for watering purposes, reached 11 36. 

 Eight persons, M. Ponce included, cultivated the orchard 



* " Portable soil " is not the latest departure in agriculture. The last 

 one is the watering of the soil with special liquids containing special 

 microbes. It is a fact that chemical manures, without organic manure, 

 seldom prove to be sufficient. On the other hand, it was discovered 

 lately that certain microbes in the soil are a necessary condition for the 

 growth of plants. Hence the idea of sowing the beneficent microbes, 

 which rapidly develop in the soil and fertilise it. We certainly shall soon 

 hear more of this new method, which is experimented upon on a large 

 scale in Germany, in order to transform peat-bogs and heavy soils into 

 rich meadows and fields. See " Recent Science " in Nineteenth Century, 

 October, 1897. 



t Ponce, La culture maraichere, 1869 ; Gressent, Le potager moderne, 

 7th edit., 1886 ; Courtois-Gdrard, Manuel pratique de culture maraichere, 

 1863 ; Vilmorin, Le bon jardinier (almanac). The general reader who 

 cares to know about the productivity of the soil will find plenty of 

 examples, well classified, in the most interesting work La Repartition 

 metrique des impots, by A. Toubeau, 2 vols., 1880. I do not quote many 

 excellent English manuals, but I must remark that the market-gardening 

 culture in this country has also obtained results very highly prized by the 

 Continental gardeners, and that the chief reproach to be addressed to it 

 is its relatively small extension. 



