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A Spiir-pruncd I^cach-trci 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE Peach Gardens of montreuil. 



The finest supplies of Peaches for the Paris market do not come, 

 as perhaps many would suppose, from the sunny south or the 

 balmy west, but from within a few miles of Paris, where they 

 have to be grown on walls furnished with good copings, and 

 receive in every way careful protection and culture. Approaching 

 Montreuil the country is seen covered with good crops of vege- 

 tables and fruit to the tops of the surrounding low hills. But 

 getting nearer still to the village, a great number of white walls, 

 about eight or nine feet high, appear, enclosing rather small squares 

 of land, which are almost entirely devoted to the Peach. As the 

 walls are netted over many acres in some parts, the eftect from a 

 distance is curious. In the squares are small fruit-trees and all sorts 

 of garden-crops. To the visitor who examines the plantations 

 here it is quite apparent that it is not to the climate that the best 

 growers owe their success. Among the two hundred and fifty 

 cultivators having Pcacli-gardens here, there are many with very 



