FRUIT CULTURE IN FRANCE. 
181 
III. Dioarf Trees for the, Fruit Garden. 
Mirabelle. Reine Claude de Wazon, 
Monsieur jaune. Mirabelle precoce. 
Reine Claude. Monsieur hatif. 
Des Bejonnieres. De Kirke. 
Favorite hative. Coe a fruit violet. 
The Beine Claude and the Mirabelle are the varieties 
preferred by most growers ; no other kind can compete with 
them in the quality of the fruit when fresh, and also for 
culinary and household purposes, except only for drying and 
for " prunes," when other varieties should be chosen. Near 
Paris, in the market gardens. Plums are to be seen at every 
step, especially the excellent Beine Claude variety, and it is the 
same in every other large town ; 2,500,000 kilos, of Beine 
Claude ajiid 1,500,000 kilos, of Mirabelle are sent to Paris from 
all parts every year. In several of the villages near Bar-sur- 
Aube, the Beine Claude trees in the vineyards have produced 
Plums to the value of 60,000 francs in one crop. Near Sainte- 
Menehould the amount has been known to reach 80,000 francs. 
In 1874 the village of Vitry-le-Brule (Marne) sold 100,000 francs' 
worth of Plums. In Picardy, the Beauvieux commune (Aisnc) 
is literally covered with Beine Claude plantations. The inhabi- 
tants realise an extraordinarily large sum by the sale of fresh 
fruit, and by distilling that which is over-ripe. 
The Marne valley, the heights between Nesles and Conde 
(altitude 230 metres), are, so to speak, simply "wooded" with 
Plum trees. In 1878 the trees were so laden with fruit that 
the crop realised as much as 75 francs per tree, the gathering 
expenses being paid by the purchaser. In 1882, in the Brie, a 
grower near Meaux estimated the produce of one hectare of 
Beine Claude to be worth 4,000 francs, the trees being ten years 
old. One hundredweight of ripe Plums has been known to fetch 
in Paris as much as 48 francs, all growing expenses deducted. 
Thanks to the favourable climate, the consignments from the 
Drome and the Pyrenees-Orientales are the first to arrive in the 
market, and next come those from the Gironde. The Taillefer 
estate at Montussan contains 4,860 Beine Claude trees, which 
in 1878, although very young, yielded there as much as 4 francs' 
worth of fruit per tree ; five years later this orchard was able 
