Chap. XXVI.] THE MARKET GARDENS OP PARIS. 465 



heavy cropping demands. Then a crop of Spinach was sown, and 

 m the Spinach Cos Lettuce. As soon as the Spinach was cleared 

 off, a crop of Endive was placed alternately with the Cos. Then 

 small Cauliflower-plants were put in, yielding a fine crop in the 

 autumn, and after them a small quick crop like Corn Salad, and 

 afterwards the ground was covered with frames. 



Like everything else in Paris, and in France generally, the condi- 

 tion of these market-gardeners has much improved during the past 

 generation. Some of the crops, and particularly the forced crops, 

 are now hrought to invariable perfection in low narrow wooden 

 frames. Eighty or ninety years ago, however, the market-gardening 

 of Paris was much less perfect ; fewer crops were gathered during 

 the year, the art of forcing early vegetables and salads was in its 

 infancy, and the most advanced market-gardeners had not got 

 beyond the use of the cloche to force their vegetables. The work- 

 men employed in these market-gardens work, like their masters, 

 hard, but are better paid than men of similar occupation in 

 England. From inquiries made of different cultivators, it seems 

 wages are from £2 to £3 per month with board and lodging. 

 They have no fixed hours for work as with us, but in summer 

 begin with the dawn and in winter hours before it. The men 

 board at their master's table. M. Courtois Gerard said that to 

 cultivate a garden of two and a half acres devoted to forcing in 

 frames, and open-air culture, it is necessary to have five or six 

 persons — that is to say, the master and mistress, two men, a girl 

 and a boy. As to the masters, I was informed that many of them 

 could not read or write ; but I noticed notwithstanding a good 

 barometer in each house. They well know the value of this in- 

 strument, and consider it of the greatest use in cultivation, by 

 helping them to take precautionary measures and to adapt work 

 to weather. 



These men have their vicissitudes notwithstanding the vigorous 

 industry and excellent system of culture which is general with 

 them. Some that I visited devote a considerable portion of space 

 to a difficult crop — Cauliflower-seed. This takes a long time — 

 more than a year— to bring to perfection ; one market-gardener in 

 the habit of growing large quantities of it for Messrs. Yilmorin, 

 Andrieux and Co., had scarcely gathered two pounds of it one 

 year in consequence of the great heat of the season. There is a 



