410 Historical Notices of the Training 



at Montreuil, and that the taille a. la Quintinie has continued 

 to be prevalent everywhere. No doubt, these words are used 

 hyperbolically ; but I will be forgiven this presumption, when it 

 is recalled to mind that under Louis XIV. servilism and mi- 

 micry were carried to the greatest excess ; that the nobles and 

 courtiers liked their gardeners to train their trees a la Quintinie ; 

 that all sensible gardeners refused to do so, and preferred leaving 

 their places, or to be turned away, rather than submit to the 

 absurd system of Quintinie. It was a true revolt of good sense 

 against an absolute folly. 



However, justice was at length rendered to the Montreuil 

 method, and that of the director of the fruit-garden of Louis XIV. 

 was condemned, as alike contrary to nature and the interest of 

 the cultivator. This equitable judgment, declared a century 

 after the death of Quintinie, and confirmed by experience, can 

 no longer be questioned. In short, the system of Quintinie was 

 founded on this axiom, " defer enjoyment, in order to enjoy for 

 a longer time;" an axiom very just in many things, but alto- 

 gether false in the culture of fruit trees. Quintinie cut in very 

 much, in order to keep , the trees growing without producing 

 fruit, and in the hopes of thereby making them live much 

 longer ; but it so happened, both to Quintinie, and to those who 

 followed his principles, that trees which bore fruit naturally after 

 being two or three years planted, did not do so when treated 

 a la Quintinie till after ten years, and then only in a very small 

 quantity, and sometimes not at all ; while trees pruned accord- 

 ing to the Montreuil method, at the age of ten years, paid a 

 hundred times their cost, and a hundred times the rent of the 

 land they occupied. 



It is not a little remarkable, that the pruning of peach trees 

 was brought almost to perfection at Montreuil about the time of 

 Louis XIV., people do not know very well how, and that it has 

 remained in the same state till within the last dozen years. Dur- 

 ing that short period, it has been brought to perfection, as 

 M. Lelieur has demonstrated in his Pomone Francaise. The 

 pruning of peach trees in France has been reduced to three 

 schools, viz. : — 



The school of Quintinie, of which the principle was to cut 

 short, and to retard the production of fruit, and to lengthen the 

 lives of the trees. 



Second, The school of Montreuil, of which the principle is to 

 cut long, and the end to obtain abundance of fruit. Rogers 

 Schabol is the most ardent of the numerous panegyrists of this 

 mode. 



Third, The modern school, of which the principle is the same 

 as that of the school of Montreuil, and the end to obtain trees 

 full and regular in their branches, without these being confused 



