French Gardening or Intensive Cultivation 



211 



Fig. 3-13 Cloche Carrier 



Cloches, which are practically miniature greenhouses, are ventilated 

 by means of special pegs or tilts, as shown in fig. 522. These tilts are 

 made of narrow pieces of wood anything at hand and have two or three 

 notches cut in them at right angles to the back. This enables the worker 

 to take the air off the cloches simply by putting his forefinger on top of 

 the tilt and pressing it backwards. The cloche slips off the notch and falls 

 on to the soft ground without injury. If the cuts are not made at a right 

 angle, but a sharper one, it will be impossible to detach a cloche without 

 using both hands and an enormous waste of time. 



It may be added that the ventilation of cloches requires as much care 

 and judgment as that of a greenhouse or hothouse, according to the weather 

 prevailing and the state of growth of the crops. 



During the summer months the cloches, not being wanted, 

 are stacked away in heaps of five, as shown in the plate, in 

 some out-of-the-way part of the garden. Small square pieces 

 of wood are placed between them, so that they shall turn 

 round easily on each other as on a pivot, and not get jammed 



and broken. ^^ 



To carry cloches about ' 

 without breaking them re- 

 quires some little skill. An 

 Fig. 5-2-2. expert gardener can carry 



Cloche Tilt t & J 



three in each hand, and put 

 them down without injury. By means of a cloche carrier, however (see 

 fig. 523), he can carry a dozen glasses at once, six in front and six behind, 

 and this is the best and safest method of carrying them any distance. 



Water. There must be a copious supply of this, especially from April 

 to September, otherwise the crops may be a complete failure. Indeed the 

 absence of water during the summer months would put the French market 

 gardener on the same dried-up level as the English grower, and he would 

 simply find himself starving on a couple of acres of ground. And one 

 can imagine what growing Lettuces, Carrots, Radishes, Endives, Cauli- 

 flowers, Melons, &c., would be like in such a summer as 1911, when the 

 thermometer in July and August frequently reached over 85 in the shade. 

 Water, therefore, in abundance must be secured at all costs, otherwise 

 the crude and unlucrative methods of the agriculturist must be adopted. 



To secure a supply of water is really the first thing a prospective 

 'maraicher should attend to in selecting a piece of land. Site, position, 

 aspect, manurial and other facilities may be perfect, but they are useless 

 unless water can be obtained at a reasonable cost. It may be necessary 

 to sink a well 30, 40, or even 80 ft. deep, and then have it pumped up 

 into a large tank one of 5000 to 10,000 gall, capacity by means of an 

 electric, gas, or oil pump. Windmills are not in favour, chiefly because 

 they have a nasty habit of lying becalmed in a frizzling hot summer, 

 when water is more than ever needed. Whichever of these methods of 

 obtaining water is adopted will necessitate an outlay of from 100 to 



