124 THE POSSIBILITIES 



French Gardening. The above examples are 

 striking enough, and yet those afforded by the 

 market-gardening culture are still more striking. 

 I mean the culture carried on in the neighbour- 

 hood of big cities, and more especially the 

 culture maraichere round Paris. In this culture 

 each plant is treated according to its age. 

 The seeds germinate and the seedlings develop 

 their first four leaflets in especially favourable 

 conditions of soil and temperature ; then the 

 best seedlings are picked out and transplanted 

 into a bed of fine loam, under a frame or in the 

 open air, where they freely develop their root- 

 lets, and, gathered on a limited space, receive 

 more than the usual care. Only after this 

 preliminary training are they bedded in the 

 open ground, where they grow till ripe. In 

 such a culture the primitive condition of the 

 soil is of little account, because loam is made 

 out of the old forcing beds. The seeds are 

 carefully tried, the seedlings receive proper 

 attention, and there is no fear of drought, 

 because of the variety of crops, the liberal 

 watering with the help of a steam engine, 

 and the stock of plants always kept ready to 

 replace the weakest individuals. Almost each 

 plant is treated individually. 



There prevails, however, with regard to 

 market-gardening, a misunderstanding which 



