General Notices. 325 



some years cost him, every thing inckuled, very nearly 4C001. The above 

 prices cannot any longer be maintained ; an immense change has taken 

 place since free trade and railroads have been introduced. 



The change is fearful upon the old market gardeners — they cannot under- 

 stand it. They little think how many fresh market gardens have sprung up 

 in all directions, and along tlie lines of raihvays — land at 30s. an acre, in- 

 stead of 101., labor low, railway carriage cheap, and every thing else in pro- 

 portion. And again, all those families that used to consume the London 

 grown article, now have tlieir own garden produce sent by railway. They 

 little think, also, that railways and steamboats are continually emptying Lon- 

 don on the Sundays, and all other times, by the tens of thousands, to eat the 

 fruits and vegetables of country gardens. That was not the case a few years 

 back. However hard it may be for those near London who are high rented 

 and most severely taxed, yet it is a great and decided change for the gen- 

 eral benefit of mankind. Railroads have given one great advantage in the 

 early spring to the London growers. Having the climate in their favor, tlaey 

 send a great deal of their vegetables northwards — as early potatoes, peas, 

 French beans, cauliflowers, rhubarb, melons, cucumbers, and other finer 

 sorts of fruits and vegetables. The foreign articles do not hurt our markets 

 in the vegetable line, because being grown in a wanner climate, they come 

 in long before we do, and by the time our early potatoes, cauliflowers, peas, 

 French beans, &c., are in, the foreigner's early crop is over, or at least it 

 would not pay them to contend against us, unless in cucumbers, and they 

 are bad. As for Dutch melons, no one of refined taste will eat them. The 

 foreign gi'owers have hurt oar fruit trade to an immense degree — such as 

 apples, pears, plums, cherries, apricots, &c. As for Dutch grapes, they 

 look beautiful, but are tough, and three seasons out of four tasteless. The 

 middle classes in and round London, cannot afford themselves strawberries 

 more than a few times, and that only when a great crop is in full bearing. 

 When a pottle is sold by the cultivator at Gd., the weight of which is tliree- 

 quarters of a pound, the grower gets only 3d., and after paying \A. for the 

 pottle, and 101. an acre, with all other expenses, the strawberry grower is 

 but poorly paid. Much more could be said about the market gardening of 

 London, but tb.e conclusion Ave must come to is, that it consists in continu- 

 ally dunging, trenching, digging, sowing, hoeing, planting, taking the pro- 

 duce to market, bringing home money and dung, paying for labor, taxes, 

 and breakage. I shall not disregard skill altogether, but dung is the very 

 fountain-head — it is the gold in a half-formed state ; and from tlie hnmense 

 profits returned, it stimulates to the use of still more manure, till at last the 

 ground is almost a hot-bed. The crops are no sooner planted than they find 

 their food at once, and their growth is rapid and fine. This will explain 

 why a London gardener can get up acres of turnips where farmers fail. 

 Rotation, no doubt, is good in all crops where the land is poor, but as I have 

 grown potatoes tliese ten years upon tlie same ground, and every year the 

 crop increases, I, for one, care little about rotation. 



The market gardeners of London could bring tlie early produce m much 



