274 THE PAEKS AND GARDENS OP PARIS. [Chap. XVII. 



department, town, or association to which they belong. All the pupils, whether 

 holders of bursaries or not, go through the same course of study, practical work, 

 and examinations, and are amenable to the same internal regulations. In the 

 school, all the pupils stand on the same footing, and are subject to the same 

 rules. 



Discipline. — Special rules are framed for regulating the hours of attendance in 

 the school, the employment of time, the course of out-door operations, and the 

 maintenance of order in the establishment. To each rule is appended the penalty 

 incurred by its infringement. Every year the course of theoretical instruction 

 is suspended for two months (from August 1 to October 1). During this time, 

 leave of absence may be granted to those pupils who ask for it; but the director 

 has the power of limiting the periods of absence, or refusing them altogether, in 

 order to enable him to have always a sufficient number of hands to keep the 

 gardens in order, or to carry out any works of importance or urgency. Any pupil 

 who does not return at the expiration of his leave of absence is looked upon as 

 having left the school ; his name is erased from the roll, and cannot be replaced 

 without the sanction of the Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. 



The School of Fruit-culture of the City of Paris in the Bois de 



Vincennes. 



Before tte war it was determined to found a school of fruit- 

 culture for Paris, and in the spring of 1868 the first trees were 

 planted. In arrangement it is almost identical with the plan 

 given in this chapter and recommended by M. Du Breuil 

 for the north of France. It is situated near the Avenue 

 Daumesnil entrance to the Bois de Vincennes. The first thing 

 remarkable about the new garden is its walls ; they are of felt 

 supported on a rough wooden framework. The felt is first nailed 

 on frames of wood about six feet long by four feet wide, which 

 are dropped into a groove made in the uprights, the stronger 

 framework resting upon a few inches of masonry : the felt is 

 whitened over, and the whole surmounted by a little ridge-like 

 coping. This peculiar form of wall was erected in consequence of 

 the objection of the authorities to have any walls of solid materials 

 in the neighbourhood, which is near the fort : but it has helped to 

 prove that in cold northern countries we may hope to grow good 

 fruit by means of something less expensive than brick walls. 

 These walls are about nine feet high, except at the north end' 

 where they are more than twelve feet. ' 



The garden is in two divisions, one to illustrate the practical 



