7 rl'/l 





68 FRANCE. 



local growers formed a co-operative association 

 for the purpose of carrying on the trade them- 

 selves. Instead of sending the capers to the 

 merchants as before, they employed their own 

 wives and children on the further processes of 

 sorting, pickling, etc., and they opened up 

 negotiations with wholesale houses in England, 

 Germany, Russia, Sweden and Norway, and the 

 United States, establishing a business which now 

 represents a total of about 200,000 francs the 

 year. The experiment answered so well, in fact, 

 that they followed it with another. Consider- 

 able quantities of apricots are grown at Roque- 

 vaire, as well as capers, and these apricots were 

 formerly sold to makers of preserves at Marseilles. 

 Some years, however, the growers had practically 

 no return from the fruit, and they resolved to no 

 longer send it to Marseilles, but to convert it 

 into preserve themselves, and work up a trade 

 with grocers, confectioners, and others. This 

 they have done, and they calculate that they 

 now secure from 30 to 40 per cent, more profit 

 from the apricots than they ever made before. 



Among other special combinations which have 

 grouped producers for the purposes of collective 

 export to the English markets I may mention 

 the following: — Syndicat Agricole du Comtat, 

 Carpentras (Vancluse), strawberries ; Syndicat 



