actually the veriest trifle.  In making a plain lettuce salad such as has been described, you will, of course, have to do without the chopped herbs, because, unfortunately, we in Australia have not risen to the necessity for their cultivation, but you can make shift with small pieces of celery, which taste admirably in the salad, or little bits of radish, or thin slices of cucumber—­ whatever, in fact, happens to be in season.

There is a remarkable condition of affairs obtaining in Sydney, and the same applies to the other metropolitan centres of Australia.  On turning up our directory for the current year it will be found on reference that the number of butchers for the city and suburbs is nearly 600.  On the other hand, the number of those whose calling is given as that of greengrocer does not reach 300.  Now, it is not to be denied that a goodly proportion of vegetables are sold by dealers whose address is not to be found under the latter heading.  Nevertheless, it is still a significant fact that while many of the butchers’ establishments possess quite an attractive and inviting appearance, on the contrary those devoted to the sale of greengrocery are represented by dingy-looking places, and by a collection of faded vegetables which seem always to be apologising for being on view at all.  The show of meat which is to be found in our Australian capitals is certainly worthy city in the world, and if the display of vegetables were only equal to it, as it assuredly should be, there would be at least something on which we might congratulate ourselves.

Another fact which is equally to be deplored with this small display of vegetables seen throughout the city is the few varieties which are cultivated.  In a former chapter attention was drawn to the nutritious properties and exquisite flavour of many vegetables which are easily grown, but which are most unaccountably passed over, and it will be remembered that the tomato was instanced in particular as having a desperate struggle for existence, and that it was years and years before it was finally received into favour.  Similarly in the case of salad plants there is the same matter for complaint, and beyond the ordinary cabbage lettuce, celery, cucumbers, and radishes, there is nothing grown.  And yet there ought to be inducement enough for many of our young men to devote themselves to such a healthy occupation as market gardening, with profit to themselves and with benefit to the community.  The market gardens around Paris, although small, are cultivated to perfection.  The French market gardeners, moreover, are, as a rule, a very prosperous class; they keep to themselves, and marry among themselves.  On making inquiries from the leading seedsmen throughout Australia, and asking what varieties of salad plants are mostly in vogue, you find that the cabbage lettuce is almost the sole representative.  And thus it is that in the very climate where the system calls for salads, so to speak, there is absolutely no attempt