The biggest vegetables and fruits are by no means always the best. But,
given a good variety, the ideal to be aimed at is to have it as big as
possible while still young and tender.
This ideal the French market-gardeners live up to, and that is what
makes their productions a joy, first to the eyes, and then to the
palate.
Intensive cultivation is the key to the mystery of how it's done.
Expert testimony is to the effect that the market gardens in and around
Paris are "the best and most thoroughly cultivated patches of ground in
Europe." From them "at least threefold more produce is gathered than
from similar extent of garden-ground elsewhere." Though the climate is
far from mild--and even in the harshest months--whole trainloads of
lettuce heads and other vegetables are sent daily from Paris to other
cities, some of them as far away as Russia.
Eight crops in one year are frequently gathered from a garden. No
time is wasted; while, for instance, the cos lettuce in one bed rears
its head on high, the ground underneath is already carpeted with the
green leaves of a young crop of escaroles. This rotation is one of
the secrets of success. Thorough cultivation and enrichment of the
soil constitute another, some of the crops being grown in beds made up
almost entirely of manure. But mainly, it is "owing to the abundant
watering of these gardens that the Paris markets are throughout the hot
season better supplied with crisp, tender, fresh vegetables than any
other capital in Europe."
Water makes up nearly the whole substance of most vegetables--for
instance, over 88 per cent. of carrots, 90 of cabbage, 93 of lettuce
and pumpkins, 95 of cucumbers. Withhold it on a few sunny days, and the
vegetables become mere masses of tough fiber. As long ago as 1878, W.
Robinson, F. L. S., whose words I have just cited, called attention in
his valuable and beautifully illustrated book on the Parks and Gardens
of Paris to the anomalous fact that though all failures in English
gardens are attributed to "want of sun," nevertheless if there is a
warm and sunny season the market supplies soon run short, owing to the
absence of any preparation for watering garden crops. "Three warm
days in July show their effect in Covent Garden, inconvenience the
housekeeper, and injure and reduce the supplies of vegetable food at a
time when these are more than ever important for health."
Since that time, no doubt, some improvement has been effected in
England, but Covent Garden Market is still largely dependent on French
gardeners for its best products, in the line of vegetables, and also of
fruits and berries.