108 
FLOATING GARDENS. 
tion to the rise and fall of the water. By means of a long pole 
thrust among the reeds at the bottom of the lake from the side of a 
boat, and turned round several times in the same direction, a quantity 
of the confervae, and of other plants are torn off from the bottom, 
and carried in the boat to the platform, where the weeds are twisted 
in conical mounds about two feet in diameter at their base, and of the 
same height, terminating at the top in a hollow, which is filled with 
fresh soft mud drawn from the bottom of the lake, to which some¬ 
times wood ashes are added, though much more frequently omitted. 
The farmer has in preparation a number of cucumber and melon 
plants, which have been raised under mats, and of these, when they 
have four leaves, he places three plants in the basin of every cone or 
mound, of which a double row runs along the edge of every bed, at 
about two feet distance from each other. No further care is neces¬ 
sary except that of collecting the fruit, and the expence of preparing 
the platforms and cones is confined to the value of the labour, which 
together is trifling, as the work is very soon done. Perhaps a more 
economical method of raising cucumbers cannpt be devised; and 
though the narrow beds are almost in contact by their sides, yet 
from their flexible nature, they are so easy separable that a small 
boat may be readily pushed betwixt the lines without injuring their 
structure; and for the most part they will hear a man's weight, though 
generally the fruit is picked off from a boat. I traversed a tract of 
about fifty acres of these floating gardens in cucumbers and melons, 
and saw not above half a dozen unhealthy plants; nor have I seen in 
the cucumber or melon grounds, in the vicinity of any populous 
cities of Europe or in Asia, so large an expanse of plants in a state 
equally healty, though it must be observed running in somewhat too 
great luxuriance of growth. 
It is presumed that the onion may be raised largely in this man¬ 
ner, and perhaps water culture may he found susceptible of being 
extended to many other plants besides these. The traveller who 
finds the water-melon of vast size buried in the hot and dry sand of 
the desert, would not he readily tempted to conclude that it could he 
raised in nearly equal luxuriance of growth, in the cool and humid 
atmosphere of a floating garden, yet the fact points out an accommo¬ 
dating power in the constitution of this plant, which may he as 
largely found in others, where, at present, it has not been supposed 
to reside. The subject is of extreme importance, the water surface 
of our islands having never been suitably called upon to contribute 
its share of produce for the maintenance of our population. 
In one of my visits to one of these floating gardens, I observed 
