FLOATING GARDENS

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 133, 7 June 1919, Page 10

FLOATING GARDENS

HIGPI CULTURE IN MEXICO.

Tourists who visit the famous "chinampas," or "floating- gardens," in tho vicinity of the City of Mexico are usually disappointed to find that thoy do not realty float. They are, in fact, small patches of solid ground, with canals ,l>ntween, and < along these waterways sightseeing visitors aro conveyed in c&notis. Anciently, howevor, there wero plenty of real floating gardens on lakes in the valley of Mexico. The Spanish Conquistadores looked upon them with amazement, and as late as a century ago some of them were beheld and described by a missionary, tho Abbe Francisco Clavigoro, who wrote:

"The natives plait and twist willows and roots together, which are light but capable of supporting tho earth of the garden. Upon this foundation thoy lay-light buaho3, and over all the mud which they draw from tho bottom of tho lake."

In .other words, the floating garden was a lightly constructed raft, carrying a thick layer of tho richest kind of soil,' obtained from tho lake bottom. Kept moist by the nearness of the water beneath, it was wonderfully productive—representing, indeed, the most intensive form of horticulture that can bo, imagined.

As described by'the Abbo Clavigero, thesu floating gardens were quadrangular in shape, most of them being about 40 feet long and 15 feet wide, though some attained'" a length of 100 feet. On tho larger ones there might be a hut, in which tho aquatic cultivator dwelt, and perhaps even fruit trees.

Tho rafts produced not only the choicest vegetables and fruits, but also flowers. And tho same is truo to-day of the notrcally floating gai-dens of Mexico. Many of the latter are wholly devoted to flowers —roses, geraniums, huge poppies, etc. Thes9 gardens of to-day, located in lowlying or swampy places, are not dependent upon rain. Water.is daily dippod up in gourds attached to long swinging and pivoted poles and thrown about until every growing plant has hod enough.