and hundreds of acres of land are covered with 

 thousands of greenhouses. 



Here we see one small commune exporting 

 5,500 tons of potatoes and 4,000 worth of pears 

 to Stratford and Scotland, and keeping for that 

 purpose its own line of steamers. Another 

 commune supplies the north of France and the 

 Rhenish provinces with strawberries, and occa- 

 sionally sends some of them to Covent Garden 

 aa well. Elsewhere early carrots, which are 

 grown amidst flax, barley and white poppies, 

 give a considerable addition to the farmer's 

 income. In another place we learn that land 

 is rented at 24 and 27 the acre, not for 

 grapes or melon-growing but for the modest 

 culture of onions ; or that the gardeners have 

 done away with such a nuisance as natural soil in 

 their frames, and prefer to make their loam out 

 of wood sawings, tannery refuse and hemp dust, 

 " animalised " by various composts.* 



In short, Belgium, which is one of the chief 

 manufacturing countries of Europe, is now 

 becoming one of the chief centres of horticulture. 

 (See Appendix B.) 



The other country which must especially be 

 recommended to the attention of horticulturists 

 is America. When we see the mountains of 



* Charles Baltet, L' Horticulture, etc. 



