18S 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL. SOCIETY. 
variety — that is, including the produce of the neighbouring 
communes, Veneux, By, Montfort, Champagne, Sablons, and 
Moret, where the CJiasselas is largely cultivated. 
Such an excellent result has produced several rivals for 
Thomery, and already there are two places not far behind it in 
regard to produce, namely: (1) Conflans-Sainte-Honorine (Seine- 
et-Oise), with its sloping chalky soil. The vineyards are said to 
be worth 50,000 francs per hectare. (2) Beaune (Cote-d'Or). 
Here the favourable Haute-Bourgogne soil gives a particularly 
sweet scent to the Grape, which, in combination with its good 
looks, makes it a favourite with even the most dainty con- 
noisseurs. Small hampers of these find a ready market in Paris, 
where about 1,000,000 kilos, of Chasselas are sold from the com- 
mencement to the close of the season. 
Competition of another kind has also sprung up. Some 
owners of vineyards of white Grapes, who have hitherto used the 
fruit only for wine-making, are now giving up the wine-press 
altogether, and send the fresh fruit to Paris instead. The 
wane-dressers in the East, the Centre, and the South have set the 
example. Bar-sur-Aube, Baroville, and the places round send 
to Troyes, Chaumont, and Paris all their Chasselas, or, as it is 
also called, " Muscadet." The grower finds it pays better to send 
the Grapes by rail, carefully packed, than it does to incur all 
the risks of pressing them, keeping in cellars, and chancing the 
fluctuating price of white wines. 
An enormous number of baskets of CJiasselas Grapes are 
received at the Pouilly-sur-Loire station ; every day during the 
gathering time, in good years, twenty-five or thirty waggon-loads 
are sent to Paris. The commercial comings and goings change 
the country into one large fair just at this time, and it is reckoned 
that there are as many as GOO brokers and consigners at work. 
The two varieties most extensively cultivated in the Tarn-et- 
Garonne are the Chasselas ordinaire and Gros Coulard ; these 
arc of early maturity, and bear a Grape of exceedingly rare 
colouring. In 1B77 there were said to be 137 hectares of 
CJiasselas plantations, each hectare yielding on an average 
8,000 kilos, of Grapes, making a total yield of over 400,000 kilos. 
The sale takes place at the Montauban market, the average price 
being 30 centimes per Idlo., making a total of 123,300 francs. 
The fruit is bought on the spot by merchants, who send it direct 
to Paris. 
