THE MARKET GARDENS OE PARIS. 



469 



vigorous and halfway toward perfection when the great 

 smooth Endive is ready for the market. As an illustration 

 of the cropping^ the cultivator described to me that of a 

 portion of his grou.nd for the past year. In the earliest 

 spring the ground was occupied by Cos lettuce^ and from 

 between them a crop of Radishes was gathered. Cauli- 

 flowers were planted early among the Cos_, and as they ap- 

 proached maturity the ground was of course wholly occu- 

 pied by them, as one could not well put anything beneath 

 a crop of perfectly grown Cauliflowers. When they were 

 cut in May and June^ an opportunity occurred of giving 

 the ground that thorough culture and preparation which 

 such a course of heavy cropping demands. Then a crop 

 of Spinach was sown_, and in 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 condition of these market gardeners has much improved 

 during the past generation. Their houses are humble 

 enough now,, but I am told by M. Courtois Gerard, a 

 capital authority on the subject, that they are palaces com- 

 pared to what he remembers them to have been. Some 

 of the crops, and particularly the forced crops, are now 

 brought to invariable perfection in low narrow w^ooden 

 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 gone beyond the use of the cloche to 

 force their vegetables. It is not that frames were not 

 known at the time, as they were known in Uoyal and other 

 private places, but they had not entered the market 

 garden. In 1780 a cultivator named Pournier first used 

 frames, and with such success in forcing that a great 

 number of his fellows soon imitated him. It was the 

 same individual who first introduced the culture of the 



