242 Salad Culture. 



used to start the blanched leaves of the chicory in winter j and 

 therefore it is desirable that it be brought into universal use. Should 

 the taste be too bitter to those unaccustomed to it, or who do not like 

 bitter salads, the addition of corn salad, celery, beetroot, &c., improves 

 and modifies the flavour, and makes a very distinct and agreeable 

 salad. Space prevents me going more into the various particulars 

 as to salad culture in the neighbourhood of Paris, where a great 

 number of varieties suited to the various seasons are grown, and 

 there is in consequence some slight variations as to treatment, but 

 the important and chief points of their cultivation are indicated in the 

 preceding pages. It should, however, be added that endive, let- 

 tuce, &c., are cultivated and forced to a considerable extent, and 

 with great success, on the narrow hotbeds elsewhere alluded to. 



The general state of the Parisian market gardens is such that I 

 cannot conclude without making some allusion to it. It has been 

 frequently said that the minute division of property in land retards 

 the improvement of agriculture in France. It may be so with 

 farming, but it certainly does not hold good with market gardens. 

 Those in and around Paris are comparatively small, but they are the 

 best and most thoroughly cultivated patches of ground I have ever 

 seen. Every span of the earth is at work 5 and cleanliness, rapid 

 rotation, deep culture, abundant food and water to the crops in a 

 word, every virtue of good cultivation are there to be seen. I doubt 

 very much if such good results could be obtained by a larger system, 

 and certainly in no part of Britain is the ground, whether garden 

 or farm, so thoroughly cultivated or rendered nearly as productive 

 as in these little family gardens. They may be so called, for they 

 are usually no larger than admits of the owner's eye seeing the 

 condition of every crop in the garden at once, and the French 

 market gardeners as a class " keep to themselves," marry among 

 themselves, and seem content with about as much ground as 

 gives occupation to the family. They are as a rule a very 

 prosperous class. I am not aware that their superior culture 

 has been noticed by any former horticultural writer who has 

 visited France ; but Paris being within eleven hours of London, 



