434 
Market- Gardenivg. 
Pickling-onions require the same cultivation and excessive 
manuring. They are sown very thickly, and are bleached by 
casting mould over them a short time before the crop is secured. 
The process of brining and skinning the crop for one large 
grower, employs about 400 women working in sheds. Dung, 
Avhich is usually placed in large heaps 5 feet high and frequently 
10 yards wide, is turned twice for onions. 
Peas are not profitable in the field-garden district. An occa- 
sional piece of early peas is sown in November, to be followed 
by some such crop as brocoli, which may be planted as soon as 
the peas are off. After hoeing, the peas are moulded up and 
the haulm is laid to check over-luxuriance. 
Brocoli and cauliflowers are largely grown on the strong, 
deep fruit-bearing soil of Enfield, a spot which is famous for the 
tribe, and has given a name to one of the varieties of cabbage. 
The cultivation of cauliflowers and of VValcheren brocoli has 
been noticed in connection with a garden in Bermondsey. The 
latter are usually planted after potatoes or cabbages at the end 
of June or early in July, and are cut from September to 
December. Market-gardeners also provide a crop of brocoli 
to cut early in spring, sowing the sprouted and winter-white and 
other kinds to plant early in September after potatoes, &c. A 
heavy coat of dung is turned in with a deep furrow, on deep soil, 
by thiee horses, or dug in when the occupation is small. The 
earliest are sold in time to sow carrots or onions. Other varieties 
follow during the spring and summer. 
Lettuce. — Without plenty of manure and garden cultivation 
lettuces run to seed quickly. Hammersmith has given a name to 
one variety, and they are confined in great measure to neigh- 
bourhoods where the gardens are small. The Brown Cos is sown 
in November for early use ; this and the white and better, 
but less hardy varieties, are sown in succession from February 
till June. The chief demand in London is at the end of May, 
and during June and July. Early sowings are made in seed- 
beds, later sowings may be made in drills without transplanting. 
With respect to the weight of crops, which is the chief point of 
agricultural interest, garden crops are generally removed before 
they are mature, and they are planted thickly with that object. It 
is not the weight, but the number of bunches, that yields a large 
return. Prices vary so much that no precise estimates on the 
subject can be given, although one of my informants lent me his 
books containing exact accounts of monthly sales for several 
years. I can report a sale of early potatoes (3 tons per acre) 
at 11/. per ton, on a Saturday in the third week in June; on the 
Monday the price was 9/. per ton, and it soon fell one half. 
Cabbages when very plentiful are sometimes sold at 4c?. a dozen, 
