OF AGRICULTURE. 193 



year ; and at a distance of thirty-three miles 

 from Paris one pear plantation brings in 24 

 per acre the cost of package, transport and 

 selling being deducted. Likewise, the planta- 

 tions of plums, of which 80,000 cwts. are con- 

 sumed every year at Paris alone, give an annual 

 money income of from 29 to 48 per acre every 

 year ; and yet, pears, plums and cherries are 

 sold at Paris, fresh and juicy, at such a price 

 that the poor, too, can eat fresh home-grown 

 fruit. 



In the province of Anjou one may see how 

 a heavy clay, improved with sand taken from 

 the Loire and with manure, has been turned, 

 in the neighbourhoods of Angers, and especially 

 at Saint Laud, into a soil which is rented at 

 from 2, 10s. to 5 the acre, and upon that 

 soil fruit is grown which a few years ago was 

 exported to America.* At Bennecour, a quite 

 small village of 850 inhabitants, near Paris, 

 one sees what man can make out of the most 

 unproductive soil. Quite recently the steep 

 slopes of its hills were only mergers from which 

 stone was extracted for the pavements of Paris. 

 Now these slopes are entirely covered with 

 apricot and cherry trees, black-currant shrubs, 

 and plantations of asparagus, green peas and 



* "Raudrlllart, Lea Populations agricoles An la France : Anjou, 

 pp. 70, 71. 



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