Evening star., 1902-09-13

Garden which sell fruits. vegetables and
flowers.
The COvent Garden market Is one nf the
largest of London 1t is within stones
throw of the Strand. and right IN the heart
of the city. The houses consist Of vast
buildings of iron and glass, big enough Tor
national exposition. They belong To the
Duke Of Bedford. who gets rent ut 50
much per week for every stall in them.
Early Morning Market Scenes.
Covent Garden is the chief wholesale mar
ket of its kind for all London. The best
time to 1t is shortly after daybreak 1
left my rooms about o'clock am. last
Saturday and walked down to them. Al.
the streets surrounding the market houses
proper were filled with carts and wagons
loaded with vegetables. Imagine the larg-
est hay wagon you have ever seen piled
high with green cabbages, so that ;he load
is taller and broader than any load of
sheaves ever brought in from the wheat
fields. The cabbages are laid IN regular
rows, and there are thousands of heads OF
cabbage to the load
Then there were great loads OF pink rad
ishes, each radish no larger than a pigeons
egg, piled up the same way. SO carefully
that they formed mighty cubes Of pink
balls. There were vast loads OF spinach
and carrots. onions and potatoes. and all
sorts of green stuff, from water creSs To
asparagus.
American Fruit in Demand.
There was a great display of fruit In
baskets and in crates. There were oranges
from California, and apples from Virginia
and also from New York and oregon.
Many Of the appleboxes were marked Tas-
mania and some South Australia. the lat
ter having been brought here on a forty
days trip in cold storage ships. There
We're dollhouse grapes, peaches and straw
berries. The raWhprripS sold
a basket, and L was offered peaches a -
cents a piece. The peaches were larger
than any l have ever seen in the United
States. They are raised under glass and
are sold from boxes of soft white cot
ton, being handled as carefully as new
babies.
Among the curious things sold are green
gooseberries and rhubarb. This Is the only
place I know where they can rhubarb fruit.
Rhubarb and gooseberry tarts are served
everywhere and my teeth are stll on edge
from trying to masticate the so-called green
gooseberry tart. The berries are larger
than ours, but so sour that they turn the
face Of girl of eighteen into that of an
old maid of thirty as she bites into them.
Flowers for Millions.
Leaving the vegetable market ] went 10
the buildings adjoining where flowers are
sold. I cannot describe the blaze OF color
and beauty which greeted me 1 entered.
The great building as large as one Of our
biggest depots was filled with blossoms of
every description from the hothouses OF
England and the continent. There were
carloads of beautiful roses, vast quantities
of Gala lilies cornhowers as blue as the
blue of our flag and masses Of flowers Of
every tint. The English are fond Of flowers
on their tables and at dinner and luncheon
every well-to-do family has Its bouquet 10
look at. / regret to say that many Of the
hotels make better display of flowers than
of food.
Fruit Auctions.
A little laters In the day there IS a great
retail market at Covent Garden. There
are also fruit auctions, where fruit OF all
kinds is sold in large quantities and
where many of the local dealers come TO
buy. The, business is enormous, the sales
OF a single day running into tens of thou
sands of pounds.
have talked with some of the merchants.
They tell me that the London market is
supplied with apples by America during
the winter and that our apples bring the
best prices California fruit OF all kinds
is in demand, and the market men believe
that a good business could be built up I'm
the sale of our late varieties of American
peaches and of the harder kinds OF pears.
FRANK @. CARPENTER.