xviii INTRODUCTION 



The cloche is a great worker for the grower, and defies 

 a harsh climate, as, combined with good soil and culture, 

 it enables the French gardener to supply so many of the 

 markets of Britain and Western Europe with salads 

 and other early and welcome things. The use and work 

 of the cloche well deserve study on the part of gardeners. 

 The packing and moving of cloches require much care, 

 if we are not to lose the half of them, and we should not 

 want makers of them over here. Surely our own glass 

 people should be able to supply us. It was one trouble 

 of the imported cloches that if not very carefully packed 

 half of them were lost on the way. Even without the 

 finely prepared soil of the Paris gardens, they are most 

 useful in various other ways, and I strike my Tea Roses 

 under them in the autumn, and get the early tender 

 green things in the spring. They are also an excellent 

 aid in propagation. 



It should be borne in mind that the soil of the French 

 market-garden is not really a soil as we understand it, 

 but very often is almost decayed manure old hot-beds, 

 in fact that, mixed with a good natural soil below, 

 makes the conditions of soil about as good as they can be. 



The French cook is a great aid, because, master in 

 his domain, he insists on having things of the right 

 quality and right age. In the Paris market you never 

 see the coarse razor-bill beans of our market, nor carrots 

 scarcely fit to offer to a horse, because over all vegetables 

 the cook exercises control. If our English cooks were to 

 have the same power it might help to put a stop to the prac- 

 tice of sending coarse vegetables to our markets. Once, 

 speaking to a leading grower of peaches at Montreuil, 

 I asked his opinion of certain new peaches more re- 

 markable for size than for good flavour, and he said, 



