The Richmond Palladium And Sun Telegram

FARM
AND
GARDEN

CAREFUL
FRUIT
GROWING.

The
French
Obtain
Better
Results
Than the Americans.

"In this country," says a French visitor, "you just put things in the ground and let them grow more or less haphazard, as far as I can see. You have a soil so fertile that I suppose you can dispense with much that is necessary in our old country. But, all the same, I think the fruit might be benefited if you did some of the things that every French grower does.

France is the country of detail, you know, and we think it pays in fruit growing just as it does in cooking.

"The fruits we pet and pamper most are the peach and the grape. The majority of peaches grown in this country would seem to a Frenchman to be distinctly of the second order—that is, in the language of his fruit culture, a peach 'de plein vent,' or one grown on trees in an orchard. Between peaches grown thus, 'open to the wind,' and those trained on trellises against walls the French make a sharp distinction.

"The trellis, or 'espalier,' peaches are the only ones that appear on a carefully regulated table and are universally cultivated. They always command a much higher price than the tree peach, and at Montreuil the fruit has been brought to such perfection that they habitually sell for from 40 to 80 cents apiece.

"Even more elaborate is the procedure with fine table grapes. Hothouse grapes are not highly in favor among French epicures, for they are held to lack the rich flavor of the fruit grown in the open. At the same time grapes are so much in demand as a table delicacy that it is desirable that their season should be prolonged as far as possible into the winter. The difficulty of this situation has been met by a system which, complicated as it is, is quite generally in use.

"The grapes are grown on trellises exposed to the sun and six or seven yards apart, like the peaches. When the clusters are ripe they are put with the stem and leaves in a sort of glass box or bottle, which is placed in a dark room. If the producer is growing for the market the bunches are looked at every day, for the slightest speck of imperfection will keep him from disposing of his stock to the best houses.

"The same care in lesser degree runs through all our fruit culture. In certain places, but only in a few the apricot is treated with all the care shown to the peach. It is less profitable to grow, for it does not keep well except by an expensive process of coating it with wax. The trees, however, are kept very carefully pruned, and the production of each is limited.

"Growers can at once retard fruit and dwarf trees to such an extent that it is possible to purchase during the winter fruit actually growing on little trees small enough to be served, pot and all, on the table. Peaches thus grown (one on a tree only) cost about $20 a piece, other things in proportion, and the fruit is sold usually not to French people, but to visitors with more money than discretion, who think it smart to imitate what they consider the luxury of our gay capital.

"All this care of detail may seem absurd to you who have a country so large and so lavishly productive as America. Still I think it is an open question whether even here, where 'time is money' so much more than it is in Europe, the expenditure of care and thought on some neglected details might not lead to the financial profit of some growers."