I08 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



At Perpignan, green artichokes a favourite vegetable 

 in France are grown, from October till June, on an area 

 covering 2500 acres, and the net revenue is estimated 

 at 32 per acre. In Central France, artichokes are even 

 cultivated in the open fields, and nevertheless the crops 

 are valued (by Baltet) at from 48 to 100 per acre. 

 In the Loiret, 1500 gardeners, who occasionally employ 

 5000 workmen, obtain from 4.00,000 to 480,000 worth 

 of vegetables, and their yearly expenditure for manure 

 is 60,000. This figure alone is the best answer to 

 those who are fond of talking about the extraordinary 

 fertility of the soil, each time they are told of some 

 success in agriculture. At Lyons, a population of 

 430,000 inhabitants is entirely supplied with vegetables 

 by the local gardeners. The same is in Amiens, which 

 is another big industrial city. The districts surrounding 

 Orleans form another great centre for market-garden- 

 ing, and it is especially worthy of notice that the 

 shrubberies of Orleans supply even America with large 

 quantities of young trees.* 



It would take, however, a volume to describe the 

 chief centres of market-gardening and fruit-growing in 

 France ; and I will mention only one region more, where 

 vegetables and fruit-growing go hand in hand. It lies 

 on the banks of the Rh6*ne, about Vienne, where we 

 find a narrow strip of land, partly composed of granite 

 rocks, which has now become a garden of an incredible 

 richness. The origin of that wealth, we are told by 

 Ardouin Dumazet, dates from some thirty years ago, 

 when the vineyards, ravaged by phylloxera, had to be 

 destroyed and some new culture had to be found. The 

 village of Ampuis became then renowned for its apricots. 

 At the present time, for a full 100 miles along the 



taken at about 3,000,000,000 fir. (^"120,000,000) more than one-half of 

 the war contribution levied by Germany. It must have largely increased 

 since 1876. (See Appendix M.) 



* Ardouin Dumazet, i., 204. 



