12 Notes and Refiections dwing a Tour : — 



who have acquired large capitals; but a numerous class of 

 small proprietors, who cultivate their own soil, and bring their 

 trees to market in the same manner as is done with other 

 garden produce. The more rare articles of the trade are 

 grown almost entirely by Paris nurserymen, and a few others 

 in the very largest towns ; and when the former have an order 

 for fruit or forest trees, they procure them from the coun- 

 try, or attend the next weekly tree market at Paris or Orleans. 

 It must be confessed that this is a very bad method of selling 

 trees ; for, after the roots have been two or three days exposed 

 to the air in severe weather, the trees, if they grow at all, have 

 little chance of thriving. We attended at the tree market in 

 Paris on three successive market days in December, and pur- 

 chased, at a remarkably low rate (Photinia serrulata, grafted, 

 1 franc each ; and common laurels grafted on cherry stocks, 

 6 ft. high, 2 francs), as many trees and shrubs as were re- 

 quired to plant a small residence, the laying out of which 

 was committed to our care. We had them carefully planted, 

 staked, and watered : but, nevertheless, we have since been 

 informed by the proprietor, Sir John Byerley, that they 

 almost all died. The exposure of goods of any description 

 at fairs and markets is a characteristic of a particular stage 

 in the progress of the population of a country, and of its civi- 

 lisation. When capital becomes abundant, this practice is 

 abandoned ; and though by private purchase the consumer 

 may sometimes pay higher, yet he obtains a more valuable 

 article, and is, in the end, a gainer. In no branch of trade 

 is this more true than in the nursery business. 



Vihy may be described as a village of nurserymen ; a cir- 

 cumstance sufficiently indicated by the following signs to the 

 public-houses there : Au rendezvous des Tpepinieristes ; Au ban 

 pepinieriste ; Cafe des pepinieristes.) &c. It is estimated that 

 there are about 400 growers here and at Choisy, the adjoin- 

 ing village ; each of whom cultivates his own property, and 

 grows trees, alternately with corn, forage crops, and culinary 

 vegetables, in the open or enclosed fields. The quantity of 

 ground covered at one time by trees is supposed to be nearly 

 4000 acres. The principal demand for forest trees in France is 

 for lining the public roads ; and they are, therefore, allowed to 

 grow till they attain considerable size, without much trouble 

 being taken in transplanting them, as in Holland. By far 

 the greater number of the fruit trees grown here are exposed 

 for sale in the streets of Paris ; and the same may be said of 

 the shrubs and roses, of which only the more common sorts 

 are dealt in by the nurserymen of Vitry. M. Lacroix, of the 

 firm of Vilmorin and Co., who accompanied us to Vitry, in- 



