4 FRENCH MARKET-GARDENING 



at p. 26 to show what they are likely to be. The 

 figures given may be considerably below the mark 

 so far as profits are concerned, and if so, so much 

 the better. It is always as difficult to estimate 

 profits in advance as it is to count chickens before 

 they are hatched. In any case, profits depend upon 

 so many factors the personality of the grower, his 

 skilfulness as a cultivator, his knowledge of the 

 markets, his business ability, etc. any one of which 

 neglected or overlooked at a critical moment may 

 easily upset the best-laid schemes, and end in loss 

 instead of profit. 



There is one thing about commercial gardening 

 from which we cannot get away, and that is expenses 

 must be incurred if any profit at all is to be made. 



HISTORY OF INTENSIVE CULTIVATION 

 IN FRANCE 



Some people are inclined to think that the present 

 system of intensive cultivation as practised in the 

 market-gardens (or " marais," as they are called) in 

 the neighbourhood of Paris is an old English system 

 that was dropped years ago and is now being revived. 

 I do not think it is anything of the kind. The English 

 gardener has had his system all along, and the French 

 gardener his each sticking more or less obstinately 

 to his own. 



The system described in this work is by no means 

 new, but I think it may be looked upon as being 

 almost exclusively French, if not entirely Parisian. 

 Claude Mollet, the first gardener to Louis XIII. of 

 France (b. 1601, d. 1643), seems to have been the 



