Throughout the kingdom there are public nurseries near all the principal towns. At Edinburgh there are several, which it may confidently be affirmed are kept in a state of greater order and neatness than any in the south ; they are particularly distinguished for the excellence of their seed ling forest-trees. The number and the flourishing state of the public nurseries may be adduced as a strong proof of the general attention paid to horticultural improvements throughout the country. Towards this they afford great facilities, furnishing, when wanted, every possible variety of plants, at prices comparatively low. In one important article we believe all of them are deficieht,—fruit tree's. These, indeed, they contain in sufficient numbers ; but their quality is often doubtful. This is particularly the case with apples and pears. The grafts for these are often collected from the nursery lines, instead of being taken, as they ought to be, from bearing branches of fruitful trees. Sometimes, no doubt, they are selected from fruit-bearing trees in gentlemen's gardens in different parts of the coun try ; but it is frequently impossible for nurserymen to pro cure grafts of the desired kinds in this way. If any judi• cious nurseryman, therefore, would form a collection of fruit•tiees of his own, to be maintained in a frua•bearing state, he would thus not only be certain ,as to the kind which he propagated, but have at his command yearly a moderate quantity of proper grafts from the fruitful boughs of bearing trees. He would thus, no doubt, be limited in the number of his grafts, and might find it necessary to ask a higher price for his plants; but this would most cheerfully be given by judicious purchasers. A nursery orchard of this kind could only, with propriety, be formed on ground the property of the nurseryman, or of which he held a very long lease. Till some such establishment take place, gentlemen who wish to avoid disappointment, must, in general, be content to graft their own fruit-trees.
Market Gardens.
37 The market gardens near the metropolis are won derful in extent, and managed in general in the best style. High rents are paid for the ground, so that as many crops as possible must be taken, and those must be of the most productive sorts. At the same time, such is the compe tition in Covent Garden market, that unless the produce be excellent of its kind, it will be rejected. The accumu lated heaps of kitchen vegetables to be seen very early in a summer morning in this place, are quite surprising, and would confound many who have frequently passed through the market in the day time, after vast quantities have been sold, and carried off by retailers, and other quantities have been placed out of sight. If from an inspection of Covent Garden green-stalls, one may judge of the general state of horticulture in Britain, it may be said to approach per fection. It cannot however be denied, that although the kitchen vegetables exhibited for sale in this market excel in size, they are inferior in flavour, and perhaps in whole someness, to those raised at a distance from London. Much of the land here occupied as market-gardens has been heavily cropped every year for perhaps a century past, and the soil has been annually replenished with manure from the city. It thus acquires a grossness calculated to give certainly at the expense of delicacy of taste. The vegetables of the London markets, however, ought not to be judged of from specimens to be met with in taverns : these are often kept steeping in water for a day, or per haps two or three days, as if it were intended to extract all flavour, or otherwise sweating in a heaped basket in the cellar, the alliaccous and strong-smelling plants tainting the others. Every one possessed of a garden is well aware
of the superiority of potherbs when recently gathered ; but those sent to the London market are gathered and packed on one day ; they are carried, by the indefatigably industrious gardeners, during night, either in waggons, or by boats on the Thames, so as to'reach the market very early the next morning. Even in this way, a complete day and night must elapse before the inhabitant of London can set on his table the freshest vegetables to be procured in the markets. But as the gardeners come to town only three times a-week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Satur days, pot-herbs must very frequently be two or three days kept before they be used. They must therefore unavoida bly suffer some deterioration ; and the wonder is, to see an enormously overgrown city so amply and regularly sup plied, and with articles so excellent in their kind.
38. Fuller, in his " Worthies," fixes the date of the establishment of a market for pot-herbs at London, to be 1590 ; but Lyson properly remarks, that entries occur in dinner bills of fare, detailed in the aciA,uht of Queen Eli zabeth's progresses, which show, that " parsley, sorrel, and strong herbs, with pcason," were to be purchased at least twenty years before that period. Rathripe, or early peas, were then accounted a dainty for a queen ; and they still continue to be a dainty, selling, when they first come in, at a crown or even half a guinea a Pottle (less than a quart.) Other articles, when produced early, give prices high in proportion, asparagus, 6s. or 7s. a hundred ; and early po tatoes, 3s. 6d. a pound. These and several other culinary plants are therefore extensively forced by the London market-gardeners ; that is, they are forwarded by the arti ficial heat either of a hot-bed or of a fined pit. Some idea may be formed of the encouragement given to horticulture by the demand of the metropolis, from considering the ex tent of ground occupied in the production of kitchen vege tables and fruit within 12 miles of London. Lyson, above named, author of the "Account of the Environs of London," and who, in the course of his minute investiga tions and inquiries, had a good opportunity of forming an accurate calculation, estimates that at least 5000 acres are employed, within that circuit, in raising kitchen roots and exclusive altogether of late potatoes, and of vege tables raised for cow-feeders. He states that 800 acres are cropped with fruit, including apples, pears, gooseber ries, currants, raspberries, and strawberries. Not fewer than 1700 acres are planted with potatoes for the market ; and 1200 with cabbages, turnips, and parsnips, for the feeding of mulch cows. The raisers of these articles are properly farming gardeners : they manure very highly, and raise garden crops, and then refresh their land by sowing with corn. They abound near Camberwell and Deptford. The production of medicinal herbs employs about 300 acres ; and from 400 to 500 are in the hands of nursery men. In this way, the employment of about 9500 acres of the richest and most highly manured lands in the vicinity of London is accounted for. At Hoxton is a very exten sive and well conducted market garden, Mr Grange's ; and this may be considered as a fair example of all the others. But the garden ground is chiefly situated near the Thames, both above and below the city, for the conveniency of water carriage in conveying the produce to market, and the not less important advantage of bringing back stable dung, for the construction of hot-beds and the manuring of the ground.