Vegetable Growing for Market 113 



Leeks draw the land very much, so that after them the next crop 

 usually requires generous preparation for it. The Leek is useful to plant 

 on land which has clubbed with Cabbage crops first, because it is im- 

 mune to the disease; and secondly, because it frequently cures the land 

 of the tendency for the next crop. [w. G. L.] 



Leeks at Evesham are a more valuable crop after a " hard" winter than 

 after a mild winter. The seed is sown in February, and the young Leeks 

 planted in breadths on the level ground in May and June, the soil being 

 rich. They are planted in rows 12 or 14 in. apart, and about 9 to 12 in. 

 apart in the rows. The method of planting is to make a deep hole 

 with a dibber and just drop the plant therein root downwards, that is 

 all no pressing of soil over the roots and around the stem. Leeks, 

 French Beans, and Broad Beans are mainly "catch crops" in South 

 Worcestershire. [j. u.] 



18. LETTUCES 



This vegetable (Lactuca sativa) has been of late much in the public 

 mind by reason of the booming of what is called "French Gardening". 



The culture of the Lettuce has been practised in France for centuries, 

 where, it is said, on account of the poorness of the meat, the taste for 

 salads was developed among the people generally long before it had got 

 beyond the most select coterie here. The art was brought over to England 

 by French gardeners who established themselves in Bermondsey when 

 that district was famous for its gardens, and at the present day the old 

 French family names will be found among our foremost market gardeners. 

 What is styled " French Gardening " is a system, practised chiefly in the 

 neighbourhood of Paris, in which Lettuces are cultivated on manure heat 

 under glass lights and cloches, in conjunction with other crops, which 

 are cleverly worked in so that a constant succession is maintained through 

 the greater part of the year. Frequently two or three crops may be 

 seen coming along together. The system "pays" the French maraicher, 

 who usually employs no labour except that of his wife and family, who 

 knows neither half-holidays nor Bank holidays, who works on Sundays 

 as long as on weekdays, who frequently takes his rest as he goes in his 

 market cart to Les Hattes (the markets), and who after all this is content 

 to live with the strictest frugality. 



Whether it "pays" in the generous English sense, which includes 

 hired labour for the roughest of the work, and living in the degree of 

 comfort our wiser economic conditions have happily made us familiar with, 

 is another question. 



The growing of early Lettuces under glass and the art of intensive 

 cropping have been practised for generations by English market gardeners, 

 only they have adapted their methods under the tuition of experience 

 to our climate and our habits of business. 



Lettuce plants for forcing on heat in the early spring are sown early 



VOL. IV. 53 



