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CHAPTEE XVII. 

 The school of horticulture at Versailles. 



The once royal and imperial kitchen-garden at Versailles is 

 at last turned into a school of gardening. It is the most suitable 

 spot that could have been obtained about Paris for the purpose. 

 The scheme seems to have been carefully considered, and in all 

 ways deserves success. On visiting some of the suburbs round 

 Paris, places which only a few years ago, immediately after the 

 war, were scenes of what seemed irreparable desolation, we 

 strangers may well be surprised at the great change that has 

 taken place for the better ; not only are traces of the destruction 

 wrought by the war unseen, but the gardens and fields look 

 better cultivated than they were before. This result is largely 

 owing to the skill in market-garden-culture and fruit-growing 

 common about Paris and taught in such places as this. It is 

 gratifying to see such minute attention bestowed on the new 

 school of gardening at Versailles, though the burdens of the 

 country prevent its being liberally endowed. This and similar 

 institutions cannot fail to further improve the horticulture and 

 add to the real wealth of the land. 



The fruit- and forcing-gardens at Versailles form a large 

 establishment, not so costly nor nearly so fine as those at Frog- 

 more, but containing much that is instructive to the visitor. 

 Generally the crops do not display the high cultivation nor the 

 surface the rapid rotation to be seen in the market-gardens round 

 Paris, but in the culture of hardy fruits there is something to 

 learn. It is a forcing-, culinary, and fruit-garden mainly. 



The hardy fruit-growing department is undergoing a gradual 

 and complete alteration, especially as regards the choicer Pears 



