464 



THE MARKET GARDENS OF PARIS. 



Fig. 279. 



every day there arrives one or more loads of stable manure, 

 all of wMcli is piled into rick-like heaps, to be used chiefly in 

 winter and spring. In November they commence to make 

 the hotbeds, and as hot dung arrives every day they mix 

 with it that which has been gathered during the summer — 

 thus insuring beds giving a moderate degree of heat. 



But a more important and expensive item is the watering. 

 The Parisian market gardener, if not a scientific man, would 

 appear to be fully aware of the fact that by far the most 

 important constituent of vegetables is water. As a rule, the 

 less of this they contain the worse they are. It is owing to 

 the abundant watering of the market gardens, more espe- 

 cially than to anything else, that the Paris markets are in 

 all sorts of seasons and summers better supplied with 



crisp, fresh, and delicious vege- 

 tables than those of any other capital 

 in Europe. Every market garden 

 has its pump worked by the horse 

 of the establishment — the Naudin 

 system being generally preferred. 

 Erom this the water is con- 

 ducted into old barrels nearly 

 plunged to their rims in the 

 ground at regular intervals over 

 the garden, and from these 

 barrels distributed by watering pots. These are always 

 of copper — the best I saw being flat-sided and oblong 

 instead of round-bodied. The handle springs clean from 

 the top to the back of the vessel, so that when filled 

 and carried by the workman to the spot he wishes to water, 

 he merely has to pitch the pots (he always uses two at a 

 time) forward a little and let his hands fall back, so as to 

 hold the pot in the position which most favours the pouring 

 out of the water. The pipe being very wide, and the rose 

 broad and freely perforated with large holes, the water is 

 discharged almost in an instant, and the workman again 

 proceeds to his barrel close at hand, and always kept filled 

 from the pump. Thorough watering is thus effected, but 

 it involves a considerable expenditure for labour, one or 



Watering-pot used by the Market 

 Gardeners of Paris. 



