FKENCH GARDENING. 



5 



FRENCH GARDENING. 

 By Mr. C. D. Mackay, F.R.H.S. 

 [Lecture delivered January 5, 1909.J 



For many years I have advocated the growing of early salads in the 

 way used by the French gardener or maraicher, but until recently only 

 one or two such gardens had been started. Within the past year 

 intensive cultivation has excited an enormous amount of interest 

 among the leisured classes and among those who have gardens and 

 gardeners of their own, and to these I more particularly wish to speak. 

 Now that they have been awakened to the simplicity of growing early 

 salads in their own gardens, they wonder why they have not attempted 

 to supply themselves instead of being dependent on the foreigner as 

 in the past. They had seen the gardens round Paris and marvelled at 

 them, but they were under the impression that in our climate such 

 methods as are there employed were doomed to failure, whereas there is 

 virtually but very little difference, in fact only about two degrees in 

 temperature, between Paris and London, and although they do not 

 have the black fogs we do, they certainly have damp white ones. 



The cry in the past has always been that our climate is not the 

 slightest good for growing vegetables in the manner adopted in France, 

 and that in France they have no frost, fog or snow, and no other difficulty 

 to contend with, in rearing the plants. Of course this is not the case. 

 The French gardeners who have had experience in this country say that 

 the climate here is good, and that the lettuces did not " fog off" as they 

 do in Paris. 



Perhaps gardeners in this country have also been to blame, in that 

 they have religiously adhered to their old-fashioned ideas. They knew 

 only by hearsay of the wonderful way in which the French grew their 

 early salads, and although their employers may have seen the methods 

 employed and the results obtained, yet the gardeners had no opportunity, 

 and possibly no desire, to see for themselves, and they foolishly con- 

 demned a system which they did not understand. 



One essential must always be borne in mind : when gardeners attempt 

 the system they must have the right varieties of seeds to grow, and it 

 must not be thought that our usual varieties of lettuces, carrots, &c, 

 are just as good as the proper varieties. 



Ours really is a most favoured country, especially in the South and 

 West, for this kind of intensive cultivation, and there should be no 

 necessity for the huge quantities of lettuces, carrots, radishes, &c, to come 

 from any foreign country as they do now. Actually lettuces are now 

 (January) coming in from Paris and are realizing good prices, and why ? 

 Simply because our growers are so lethargic and non-progressive that 

 they will not believe it possible to work the system successfully here ; 

 neither is it, unless they adopt the same methods as the French people ; 



