CHAPTER XVII. 

 Salad Culture. Mushroom Growing, &c. 



JOT only do the French gardeners supply their own markets 

 with delicious salads all through the winter and early 

 spring months, but also, to a considerable extent, those of 

 some other countries, and send vast quantities to the English 

 markets. Now it will probably occur to the reader that climate is 

 the cause of the superiority of the French in this respect, and, 

 indeed, some practical men repeatedly say so. Nothing can be 

 more fallacious than this belief, and I have no hesitation in affirm- 

 ing that, by the adoption of the method to be presently described, 

 as good salads as ever went to the Paris markets may be grown in 

 England and Ireland during the coldest months of winter and 

 spring. It is simply nonsense to say the climate does it ; the 

 winters in northern France are severer than our own, and I know 

 many spots in England and Ireland which are preferable to the 

 neighbourhood of Paris for this culture. Near that city I have often 

 seen beautiful cos and cabbage lettuces looking as fresh under their 

 coverings in the middle of winter, when the earth was frost-bound, 

 as the budding lilac in May : had they been treated as ours usually 

 are, they would have presented a very different appearance. At 

 all times of the year the gardens in which salads are grown round 

 Paris are beautiful examples of cultivation. In the spring and 

 summer, when they are grown in the open air, nothing can be 

 more agreeable to look upon j but it is their condition in the cold 



