XXX INTRODUCTION. 



they now pay, the Parisians would use even less than 

 we do. 



For many years the London market gardeners, who have 

 long seen these beautiful Lettuces selling at high prices in the 

 markets — at as much as 9s. per dozen wholesale — have quietly 

 concluded that they came from some Eden-like spot in the 

 south of France, and have apparently never taken the 

 trouble to see how they are produced. The truth is, that 

 by the adoption of the French system they may be grown 

 to fully as great perfection near London and in the home 

 counties as near Paris. The fact that we have to be sup- 

 plied by our neighbours with articles that could be so easily 

 produced in this country is almost ridiculous. It is im- 

 possible to exaggerate the importance of this culture for a 

 nation of gardeners like the British; and if it were the 

 only hint that we could take from the French cultivators 

 with advantage, it would be well worth consideration. 

 " Enormous" was the term which was made use of by a 

 Paris market gardener in describing to me the quantities, 

 of Lettuces sent from his garden, and the numbers of 

 the traders who came in search of them. The French system 

 will have the first difficulty to get over — that of people 

 becoming used to it, and slightly changing their habits of 

 culture to accommodate it; but it must ere long be uni- 

 versally adopted with us, and nothing can prevent a great 

 benefit being reaped from it by the horticulturists of the 

 United Kingdom. 



The French are also far before us in the culture and 

 appreciation of Asparagus, pursuing a system quite op- 

 posed to ours, and growing it so abundantly that for 

 many weeks in spring it is an article of popular use 

 with all classes. Some among us affect to ridicule French 

 Asparagus in consequence of its being blanched nearly to 

 the top of the shoot ; but they forget, or ignore the fact, 

 that to remove this imperfection, if it be one, the grower 

 has merely to save himself the trouble of causing it, and that 

 he may adopt the superior mode of culture and root- 

 treatment pursued by the French without blanching the 

 stem if he desires it in a green state. Apart from this, their 



