OF AGRICULTURE. 129 



attains as much as 32 per acre. No less than 

 2,125 acres are cultivated round Paris in that 

 way by 5,000 persons, and thus not only the 

 2,000,000 Parisians are supplied with vege- 

 tables, but the surplus is also sent to London. 



The above results are obtained with the help 

 of warm frames, thousands of glass bells, and 

 so on. But even without such costly things, 

 with only thirty-six yards of frames for seedlings, 

 vegetables are grown in the open air to the 

 value of 200 per acre.* It is obvious, how- 

 ever, that in such cases the high selling prices of 

 the crops are not due to the high prices fetched 

 by early vegetables in winter ; they are entirely 

 due to the high crops of the plainest ones. 



Let me add also that all this wonderful 

 culture has entirely developed in the second 

 half of the nineteenth century. Before that, 

 it was quite primitive. But now the Paris 

 gardener not only defies the soil he would 

 grow the same crops on an asphalt pavement 

 he defies climate. His walls, which are built 

 to reflect light and to protect the wall-trees 

 from the northern winds, his wall-tree shades 

 and glass protectors, his frames and pepinieres 

 have made a real garden, a rich Southern 

 garden, out of the suburbs of Paris. He has 



* Manuel pratique de culture maraichdre, by Courtois-G6rard, 

 4th edit., 1868. 



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