OF AGRICULTURE. 195 



gardeners. The same is in Amiens, which is 

 another big industrial city. The districts sur- 

 rounding Orleans form another great centre for 

 market-gardening, 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 Rhone, 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 Rhone, and in the lateral 

 valleys of the Ardeche and the Drome, the 

 country is an admirable orchard, from which 

 millions' worth of fruit is exported, and the 

 land attains the selling price of from 325 to 

 400 the acre. Small plots of land are con- 



* Ardouin Dumazet, i., 204. 



