August, 1909 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 31 
~I 
Grape Culture in France 
By Jacques Boyer 
HOME RY is a picturesque and quite unique 
French village about four miles from Fon- 
tainebleau, on the southerly bank of the 
Seine. To the eye of the visitor it presents 
an almost uninterrupted succession of white- 
washed walls covered with flourishing 
grape-vines. Most of the houses and the 
garden walls are so covered. In autumn golden grapes clus- 
ter everywhere. The grapes are kept in a fresh condition, by 
methods peculiar to the district, to await a favorable market. 
Practically only two varieties of grapes are cultivated at 
Thomery, the Golden Chasselas of Fontainbleau, which 
probably originated in Ca- 
hors or in Piedmont, and 
the Frankenthal, which was 
imported from Germany 
about 1840. The wood of 
the former is reddish, and 
its leaves are grayish-green 
above, smooth beneath and 
deeply incised. The ripe 
grapes have a_ beautiful 
golden hue. There are two 
sub-varieties of the Frank- 
enthal. The variety with 
pale green leaves yields 
finer grapes than the other, 
the foliage of which has a 
reddish tint. The Ciota 
chasselas is cultivated in 
pots for exhibition. The 
Cesar, an oval black grape 
with a tough skin and ex- 
cellent keeping qualities; 
the black and white Mus- 
cats, with globular fruit; 
and the Rose Malaga, a 
large oval grape of the 
color of red wine lees, which 
ripens only in favorable ex- 
posures, are also cultivated 
to some extent. 
The vines are planted in 
espaliers and counter espa- 
liers. The high walls are 
ten feet in height and 
placed at varying distances, 
Vines of Ciota chasselas in pots 
averaging one hundred feet. Between them lower walls are 
placed. The high walls are surmounted by pitched tile roofs, 
the ridges of which are protected by curved tiles. These 
walls also carry iron supports on which, about the first of 
September, planks or glazed sashes, twenty inches wide, are 
placed to protect the grapes from rain. Similar sashes are 
placed on the small walls when they are needed. 
Various systems of trellising are employed, with hori- 
zontal, vertical and oblique wires. Many of the high walls 
bear five horizontal wires nineteen inches apart, the lowest 
sixteen inches above the ground, and the highest twenty- 
seven inches below the top of the wall. The vines are planted 
sixteen inches apart. In 
hot and dry situations, a 
single vertical wire is used 
for each vine. Wires in- 
clined thirty degrees to the 
horizontal are used to a 
considerable extent. The 
vines are planted twenty 
inches apart, and are pruned 
and trained as in the case 
of horizontal wiring, ex- 
cept that twice as many 
canes are left. The first 
counter espalier, or de- 
tached trellis, is set six or 
seven feet from the wall, 
and the others follow at in- 
tervals of fifty-two inches. 
These trellises may have 
either horizontal or vertical 
wires. The vines are often 
pruned to three or four 
canes and trained in the 
chape of a fan. 
The fine clusters of 
golden grapes, for which 
Thomery is celebrated, are 
not produced without much 
care and labor, in pruning, 
tying, spraying, pinching 
back, thinning, bagging the 
grapes and removing su- 
perfluous leaves, buds and 
tendrils. When the green 
shoots have attained a 
