462 THE PAEKS AND GARDENS OF PARIS. [Chap. XXVI. 



being dbne with ease and thoroughness. The whole surface of a 

 perfect kitchen-garden should be as freely open to the labours of 

 man, or horse, or spade, as a heap of loam lying in a compost- 

 yard. In the orthodox kitchen-garden, the men may frequently 

 be seen carefully scraping their boots, just as if they were going 

 into a drawing-room or a Turkish bath. Half the ground tho- 

 roughly cultivated would be better than the large areas we fre- 

 quently see bare or badly cultivated. As regards the convenience 

 of moving coniposts and the like, that is more easily secured in a 

 garden free from all obstructions in the way of well-gravelled 

 walks and neatly-kept edgings. In a very large garden, a firm 

 cart-way might in some cases be desirable, but the fact is that 

 the space really necessary for the kitchen-garden proper, under a 

 good system of culture, is of a size that a walk or cart- way leading 

 to it is all that is required. The best system for the kitchen- 

 garden is a thorough trenching and annual enriching ; afterwards, 

 and throughout the seasons of greatest growth, such cropping of 

 the surface as never allows the ground to be idle ; this system is 

 most easily pursued where there is nothing needlessly in the 

 cultivator's way. 



Third. Because Walks are Needless as a Convenience among 

 Kitchen-garden Crops. — Permanent walks may be a convenience 

 among choice dwarf fruit-trees, small fruits, plantations of herbs, 

 etc., but nobody who considers the matter fully will say that they 

 are needed among succulent crops, such as Cauliflowers, Kidney- 

 beans, and the like. A walk in itself is ugly, and a few lines of 

 a useful well-grown crop are far preferable in appearance ; as to 

 inconvenience from mud, &c., there is none, because in any case 

 the cultivator or gatherer has to get on the ground, and in the 

 usual style of elaborately laid-out gardens he has always the 

 needless trouble of taking care not to soil the walks. In a well- 

 drained garden there is little fear of mud. In case one of the 

 main lines of walk passes through or near a kitchen-garden, we 

 need not consider it, because that is a question concerning the 

 general convenience of the place. It has nothing to do with the 

 present question — the need of walks in the kitchen-garden itself. 



Fourth. Cleanliness and Neatness. — It is much easier to keep 

 clean a garden, the whole surface of which is devoted to crops, 

 than one where a large area is bare, and continually offering in 



