OF AGRICULTURE. 197 



Var, 3,475 tons of flowers, valued from 160,000 

 to 200,000, were exported in 1902. 



I must refer the reader to the work of Charles 

 Baltet if he will know more about the ex- 

 tension taken by market-gardening in different 

 countries, and will only mention Belgium and 

 America. 



The exports of vegetables from Belgium have 

 increased twofold within the last twenty years 

 of the nineteenth century, and whole regions, 

 like Flanders, claim to be now the market- 

 garden of England, even seeds of the vege- 

 tables preferred in this country being dis- 

 tributed free by one horticultural society in 

 order to increase the export. Not only the best 

 lands are appropriated for that purpose, but 

 even the sand deserts of the Ardennes and peat- 

 bogs are turned into rich market-gardens, while 

 large plains (namely at Haeren) are irrigated 

 for the same purpose. Scores of schools, ex- 

 perimental farms, and small experimental 

 stations, evening lectures, and so on, are 

 opened by the communes, the private societies, 

 and the State, in order to promote horticulture, 



(Armand Colin), 1912, p. 74. Professor Fontgalland estimates 

 that the total exports of flowers, living plants, fruit and vege- 

 tables, both in season and out of season (priineurs), from the 

 Alpes Maritimes, reach the enormous sum of 1,188,000, the 

 gross income from an acre reaching as much as 200. 



