Chap. XXVL] THE MARKET GARDENS OP PARIS. 461 



season be as impossible with us as in the Sahara. This small 

 division might be established in most places at a trifling cost • 

 while the result would be so satisfactory that it would probably 

 soon lead the grower to adopt the same plan on a larger scale. 

 It need hardly be added that it would not be necessary to take 

 such precautions in very moist districts in the British Isles ; but 

 there are many districts where a modification of the Parisian plan 

 would prove a decided advantage. 



Noticeable in these market-gardens is their rich verdure at 

 nearly all seasons. In the ordinary kitchen-garden there is often 

 as much space wasted in needless walks and alleys as goes to 

 form one of these little gardens which occupy and support a 

 family. Custom, time, and authority are all arrayed in favour of 

 a series of walks in the kitchen-garden, and yet they are as 

 wrong as they can be. For the following reasons there should 

 not be any walks in a perfect kitchen-garden : — ■ 



First. Convenience of Watering and Irrigation. — Even in our 

 moist country good vegetable culture is not everywhere possible 

 without watering or irrigation. As gardens are at present 

 arranged, watering is difficult, and irrigation impossible, without 

 spoiling all the walks, gravel, and edgings. In many parts of the 

 country, especially in Scotland and the moist parts of Ireland, the 

 need of thorough watering or irrigation is not known ; but in 

 England it is seriously felt. Three warm days in July show their 

 effect in Covent Garden, inconvenience the housekeeper, and 

 injure and reduce the supplies of vegetable food at a time when 

 these are more than ever important for health. It cannot be said 

 that either our kitchen- or market-gardening is what it should be 

 so long as we are unable to reap benefit instead of loss from the 

 sunny weather. In a garden properly irrigated, a few weeks of 

 warmth would give us a better result than we should obtain 

 during a similar number of cold or cloudy days. Therefore we 

 shall never have a good system of kitchen-gardening till all crops 

 liable to suffer from drought are as promptly and effectually 

 watered as a small plant growing in a pot. 



Second. To Secure Good Culture. — To get the best result from 

 a piece of ground devoted to vegetable-culture, it is necessary that 

 the whole of it be thoroughly turned up, and enriched from time 

 to time. Walks and hard alleys, gravel, etc., prevent this from 



