INTRODUCTION. 



xxix 



importance. We require walls for our fruit trees more 

 than the French do, and there is no way in which we need 

 improvement more than in the matter of the proper covering 

 and development of wall trees. Vv ith standard trees, pruning 

 may be dispensed with to a great extent ; but so long as we 

 are obliged to devote walls to the production of our finer 

 fruits, such knowledge as is now possessed by good French 

 fruit growers must prove a great aid. With this knowledge, 

 and the adoption of one of the two economical modes of wall- 

 making described^ aided by the general introduction of the 

 mechanical aids to successful garden fruit cultm^e now 

 becoming so general in France, and which I have described 

 and figured at length, we might look forward to a vast 

 improvement in our fruit gardens both as regards their 

 beauty and utility. 



In the vegetable departmeutwe have also several important 

 things to learn from the French, and not the least among these 

 is the winter and spring culture of Salads — inasmuch as 

 enormous quantities of these are sent from Paris to our 

 markets during the spring months. During the last days 

 of April, 1868, 1 saw fine specimens of the green Cos Lettuce 

 of the Paris market gardeners selling at a high price in 

 Nottingham, and doubtless it is the same in many of our 

 great cities and towns far removed from London. As I 

 write this (April 19th) the market gardens near London are 

 faintly traced with light green lines of weak young Lettuce 

 plants, that have been for weeks barely existing under the 

 influences of our harsh spring. Around Paris at the same 

 season, in consequence of the adoption of the cloche and a 

 careful system of culture, it is a pleasure to see the size and 

 perfect health of the crops of Lettuces — the difference 

 in culture, and not the imaginary difference in climate^ 

 solely producing the result. Some have remarked that 

 we are not a Salad-eating race; but the fact that large 

 quantities of Parisian Lettuces are imported every week and 

 every day for many weeks in spring, proves that we are 

 so in so far as we can afford it. If the restaurants 

 and houses of all classes in Paris had to be supplied 

 from another country, and at about four times the price 



