10 



did not agree ; that the young Pepin returned to 

 train his father's trees at Montreuil, and that the 

 taille a la Quintinie continued to be prevalent every- 

 where. The nobles and courtiers liked their gar- 

 deners 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 done to the Mon- 

 treuil method, and that of the director of the fruit 

 garden of Louis XIY. was condemned, as alike con- 

 trary 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 enjoy- 

 ment, in order to enjoy for a longer time an axiom 

 very just in many things, but altogether 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 w^ho followed his principles, that trees 

 which bore fruit naturally, after being two or three 

 years planted, did not do so when treated a la Quin- 

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

 quantity, and sometimes not at all ; while trees pruned 



