Winter Meeting. 129 



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varieties and not fruit trees, even the mulberry is not grown for the fruit, 

 but for the leaves which are stripped off to be used in feeding- the silk 

 worms. 



The best apricot we had served to us on the shores of Lake Lugano, 

 northern Italy. It was not insipid as the yellow, but its white juicy 

 flesh had a most delicate flavor and partially clung to the pit. 



The children in Italy spent their pennies for fruit and poor men and 

 women chose a cornucopia of cherries for refreshment between meals. 



Because fruit is such a luxury more pains is taken in arranging the 

 packages for sale. Strawberries, for instance, a pint in. a little graceful 

 basket were piled up on a bed of leaves leaving a green border of them 

 extended beyond the edge of the basket, a charming contrast to the 

 red berries. Anybody would pay 25 cents for such a fragrant, pretty 

 treat. 



In the Paris market quantities of leaves — oak, grape, linden, etc. — 

 are sold in packages of 25 or more for the purpose of using under the 

 fruit. In a small, white paper dish were laid 3 grape leaves to make an 

 attractive background to the two peaches, one bunch of grapes and 6 

 plums, over the top, another leaf, then wrapped in white paper and tied 

 so that by a loop of the cord you could carry your package right side 

 up. The whole cost sixty cents. It ought to be nice at that price. Well, 

 and it zmis nice. 



You have heard of the marvels of intensive culture; nevertheless you 

 are surprised upon lookhig at the tiny plots of gardens in the valley 

 outside Paris to learn that from three to five crops are grown on each lot 

 every year, and the profit runs from one to five thousand dollars per acre 

 each year. No wonder, then that the vegetables brought into Paris over- 

 flow the limits of even the immense market building; so that two blocks 

 from the great covered square you will find the vegetable wagons and 

 carts blocking the traffic, the sidewalks so covered with baskets you 

 can scarcely pass. In the building, business is more orderly. Among 

 other fruits were peaches from Algiers : 6 are packed in a wooden box 

 on a bed of excelsior which also filled the extra spaces. Each peach 

 is wrapped with tissue paper and a layer of cotton; 24 of these boxes 

 are fastened together for shipment, by express ; no wonder a peach sells 

 for 20 to 60 cents. The water-cress bunches were packed in a deep 

 cylinder basket, 12 dozen in a basket. One layer deep all 'round, thus 

 leaving an opening in the center, through which air could circulate, every 

 bunch' be reached by the sprinkling of water, while a cover at the top 

 shut out the light which might turn the leaves yellow. 



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