SECTION XXXIV 



French Gardening or Intensive 

 Cultivation 



i. GENERAL 



For over three hundred years market gardeners, or maraichers, in the 

 neighbourhood of Paris and other parts of France have practised a wonder- 

 ful system of cultivation, by means of which they succeed in obtaining 

 several large crops of salads and vegetables from a comparatively small 

 patch of ground in the course of the year. Notwithstanding the improve- 

 ments in greenhouse structures and heating apparatus the French gardener 

 still continues to grow his Lettuces, Carrots, Cauliflowers, Radishes, Endives, 

 Turnips, and Melons in the same way as his forefathers, and in many cases 

 the mysteries of the art have been transmitted from father to son for 

 several generations. Even now, when one fears that the almost universal 

 adoption of the motor car will render it more and more difficult to obtain 

 manure easily and at a reasonable rate, there seems to be no abatement 

 in the number of gardens, nor in the amount of produce from them. While 

 it is, of course, possible that motor cars will interfere to a certain extent 

 with the massing of manure in the large cities, it may be taken for granted 

 that there will be no appreciable reduction in the number of horses 

 as a whole, either in France, in the United Kingdom, or in Germany. 

 What is, however, likely to happen is that the manure will be more widely 

 distributed throughout the country, and provincial growers may have as 

 good an opportunity of obtaining large supplies as their brethren have 

 hitherto had in the neighbourhood of large cities like London, and Paris, 

 and Berlin. But good manure and plenty of it is one of the first essentials 

 wherever the French system of intensive cultivation is to be practised. 



In many quarters there is an impression that even if manure should 

 become scarce its place can be easily taken by hot water. This is a 

 delusion, and one likely to prove costly to those who rely upon it. In 

 the first place, the great advantage of having plenty of manure is that 

 the beds can be made in different parts of the garden year after year, 

 and even during each season of growth, without one bed interfering with 



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