380 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
and determined to a man that all tlieir secrets shall remain 
with them, and in their hands alone. If a question is put to 
them, their mouths are at once sealed. They will not give 
information; hut they will endeavour, if possible, to deceive 
you, and even when anything new is discovered, this prin¬ 
ciple of secresy is carried out with their next neighbour. 
All admit that London furnishes the iinest flowers, fruits, 
and vegetables in the world, and the reason is, London con¬ 
tains the world’s wealth, being tlie great resort of the aris¬ 
tocracy, and the very centre of commerce. This being the 
case, market gardeners have always got the highest prices 
for their goods. This stimulates them to greater exertions 
to get heavier crops, and those of the Iinest quality. HI a- 
nure, the very “ gold dust ” of high cultivation, with them 
is cheap and plentiful; without this the London marlcet 
gardeners would not be one hit better than those of any 
other neighboui'hood; in addition to this, London being 
such a large city, the suburbs even, on account of the large 
number of horses, cows, pigs, &g., which ai'e kept in them, 
yield great quantities of rich manures. Therefore market 
gardeners so situated get their manure at the cheapest rate, 
and they sell their produce at the very dearest. The large 
competition which exists among growers makes them very 
quick, and most excellent men of business. They have 
good selected seed, proper times of sowing and planting, 
witli an enormous quantity of seed-beds always ready. I 
have seen myself nine acres of seed beds of cabbages upon 
one man’s ground, and every one of them planted out by 
November. 
“ I have lived in what are called the Fulham Fields, which 
are now market grounds ; this district lies west of London 
on the noi-th bank of the Tiiames, with a very gentle slope 
to the river, running westward some eight miles, and 
bounded on tlie north side by the Brentford or great western 
road, containing many thousand acres. This is the spot 
where the Iinest things are grown in general; but there is a 
tract of ground, less or more on the Surrey or south side of 
the Thames, reaching from Camberwell all the way to Itioh- 
rnoud, a distance of some ten miles, which is little, if any, 
inferior. The Surrey market gardeners also produce first- 
rate things, and were they as close upon Loudon, with no 
tolls to pay in taking theu’ produce to market, they would 
match the Fulham growers. Then, again, there is a district 
between London Bridge and Greenwich called the ‘Jamaica 
Level,’ this is also on the south side of the Thames, nearly 
all of which is in Kent. This low-lying piece of ground is 
very rich of itself, having been washed by the Thames, 
which has left a rich deposit of soil many feet deep,—-so 
deep that the very best Liquorice has been grown there. 
This part produces very line strawberries, rhubarb, horse¬ 
radish, and the finest sea-kale of all. These, then, are the 
principal districts near and around London. Then farther 
into Kent, “ the garden of fruits of England,” great quan¬ 
tities and great varieties are grown there for ‘tlie London 
markets; for instance, very early peas and asparagus round 
Gravesend, <.tc.. with enormous crops of fruits of all sorts, 
spread here and there all over the county. Then we cross 
the Thames into Essex; there again they produce peas, 
beans, cabbages, onions, &c., even as far down as Colchester, 
whence famous early asparagus, &o., is sent to town. In 
leaving Essex, iiassiug along the northern skirts of the 
city, touching part of Hertford, the land in general is not so 
congenial, being mostly clay; here very little, except at 
Enfield, is produced for the London markets. Then west¬ 
ward of Brentford, in the districts of Isleworth, Hounslow, 
Teddington, <fcc., the very finest productions are raised, such 
as (Beach’s) strawberries, by which he surprised the world 
in the Crystal Palace, many of them weighing three ounces. 
I have seen his grounds there when in full bearing, and 
such heaps of British Queens upon one plant, and such big 
plants I had never seen before. Then Bedfordshire suiiplies 
cucumbei-s by the waggon-load. Turnip-tops come as far 
oil' as from Buckingham and Berkshire ; besides the enor¬ 
mous quantities of hampers of all sorts of vegetables sent 
by families, &c. London swallows up everything, with its 
three millions, and its tens of thousands going in and 
coming out; still no towji in the world is better supplied 
with fruits, vegetables, and flowers. 
“ Some years back, I took IMr. Smith, of Deanston, over 
I part of the Fulham gardens; he was perfectly astonished. 
Eebeuary 17. 
He looked for big hedges, big ditches, and weeds, but none 
were to be seen. The grand secret after all is in a nutshell. 
Continual dimging, trenching, or bastard-trenching (that is, 
the dung and part of the top mould put in, and one spit 
afterwards), hoeing whether there are weeds or not, with the 
best ot seed, and attention paid to the proper times of 
sowing and planting. There is no drawing up of the mould 
to Iceep the cabbages, as some suppose, from being lilown 
down. Drawing up the mould is never practised by the 
best gardeners. 
“ It was at one time considered by market gardeners to be 
beneath their notice to grow flowers ; but now they all do so, 
—such as Stocks, I’inks, Picotees, Cloves, Ranunculuses, 
Anemonies, Heartsease, Daisies, Ariculas, Geraniums, Mig¬ 
nonette, Polyanthuses, I'iolets, Hoses, and every saleable 
blossom of every sort. I have seen myself nine carts and 
waggon loads of vegetables from one man’s ground, all sold 
in Covent Gai’den by nine o’clock in the morning. The first 
loads are put down in the market, and they go back for 
more in the course of the night,—this is at the height of 
the season. Some idea may bo formed of the quantity, 
when I state that a London waggon contains lot) dozen of 
Spring cabbages. Tlie market in Covent Garden, some ten 
year's ago, commenced at two o’clock in the morning, but 
now between three and four ; this ditference is caused from 
tlie enormously increased supply; the buyers know now 
that they cannot be disappointed, as they often were ten 
years ago. No longer can such prices bo realised as fi.'is. 
per lb. for grapes, nor Lfi for a pine of two lb., nor IDs. for 
a melon, nor lOs. for a cucumber, nor 4s. for a pound of 
potatoes; these days are gone hy;—railroads have done 
wonders. The old market gardeners are astounded at 
present prices ; but they do not sufl'er so much, since they 
get everything cheap for their use. 
“ Growers of seeds suffer most, as the Continental cul¬ 
tivators sell their rubbish so cheap; this, in tlie course of 
time, will entirely destroy our tine breed of vegetables which 
we have taken many years to improve, .lust think of foreign 
onion seed at tld. per lb., that for which we used to get iJs. 
and 4s. Foreign growers grow all sorts of cucumbers 
together, and all sorts of cabbages and onions, so that our 
vegetables will soon be as mixed as an Irislt stew. Just 
look at the tons of horse-radish that come over every winter 
from the Continent; you may just as well try to scrape a 
broom-stick. Their asparagus is all white, and as hard as 
their horse-radish. The worst of it is that tlie Englisli 
people don’t know what it i.s; it ought to be sold, as the 
chicory is now, with a ticket on it, the stulf would very soon 
find its level—let any one try to eat a Dutch melon, or a 
French cucumber—compare them with our growth. All this 
cannot now be helped ; but the seed ought to bo put a stop 
to directly—deal ivith no house a second time wlrere the 
seed turns out all sorts of mixed rubbish, you may bo sure 
that it did not grow in Kent, Essex, or Surrey. The other 
day I asked a large grower in the Fulham fields if lie still 
saved cucumber seed? He said, no; the seed merchant 
would no longer give a fair price, as they could get foreign 
so cheap. He used to grow twelve acres. Again, some years 
ago, he used to save two tons of cauliflower seeil—this he 
was obliged to give up. Now, one thing is certain, market 
gardeners grow seed for their own consumption; but what 
will become of the growers elsewhere, who are obliged to 
depend upon the London merchants ? I know every one of 
them, and they have no desire to buy the foreign; but t hey 
say that the country people apply to those who advertise far 
below the real market prices. Growers ought never to buy 
of these people, it is ‘ cheap and nasty,’ and sure to end in i 
disappointment. I 
“ We must not overlook the herb grounds round London, I 
which are very interesting. The district where herbs are : 
cultivated, is iMitcham, in Surrey, about nine miles south- ; 
west of London, where hundreds of acres of all sorts are , 
grown. As the stranger approaches that locality in the j 
summer time, with the wind in the south-west, the com- j 
bination of odours can easily be discovered in the air, 
which is ‘ redolent with sweetness ; ’ there are hundreds of ! 
acres of liquorice, of lavender, and peppermint, for dis¬ 
tillation, Ac. The cultivation of mint is very easy and ’ 
simple; it is ploughed-in every winter. This does not 
destroy the mint-roots, on the contrary, it improves them, as 
