January t, 1898. 



THE 



GARDENERS' MAGAZINE 



THE 



NATIONAL HORTICULTURAL SCHOOL OF 



Versailles. 



school was founded on 



December 16, 1873, and inaugurated 



It consists of the Palace Gardens, representing a 



This 



December I, 1874. . . 



total area of twenty-five acres, created by La Quintinie in 1683. The 



' 3 - J — J — pos- 



on the 



object of the school is to form competent and educated gardeners, 

 sessine the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge bearing o 

 art of horticulture. While Le N6tre laid out the park and grounds of the 

 palace the creation of the fruit, flower, and kitchen gardens is the work 

 of La' Quintinie. He had to make a Dismal Swamp blossom like a 

 rose That marsh was the receptacle for all the water that trickled down 

 from the neighbouring hills. In winter it was mud, in summer baked 

 brick. He commenced operations in 1678, completed them in 1683, at a 

 cost of 1,800,000 francs. La Quintinie was a singular man. He was a 

 barrister, but never pleaded ; a theologian, but never preached ; and a 

 passionate horticulturist and agriculturist, full of original ideas. He 

 travelled a good deal; he visited England twice, and James II., who 

 had a great esteem for him, tried to retain his services, but La Quin- 

 tinie preferred the offers of his own king Louis XIV. He assured the 

 latter he would supply the royal table with new asparagus and sorrel in 

 the month ol December ; radishes, lettuces, and mushrooms in January ; 

 cauliflowers in March ; strawberries early in April ; peas in May ; and 

 melons in June. And he more than kept his word. 



Visitors to the Palace of Versailles have doubtless remarked the sheet 

 of water familiarly known as La Pi&ce des Suisses— so called because 

 the excavation, twelve feet deep, was effected by a regiment of Swiss 



soldiers. Parallel with this was the marsh site of the gardens. It was 

 filled up with the excavated earth, or rather sand ; over the latter was 

 spread layers of loamy soil transported from the neighbourhood of the 

 Sartory hills. Then an aqueduct was constructed underneath, into which 

 the drains emptied. That became also the water supply for the gardens. 

 The herculean task accomplished, La Quintinie, who had given the area 

 a general slope, divided it into thirty gardens, enclosing the centre with 

 dividing walls running in different directions to secure shelter and to 

 accommodate fruit trees. The plan of the garden to-day is not radically 

 different from the original ; it is a series of parallelograms, with wall 

 spaces, espaliers, hothouses, conservatories, beds, glasses, and " forceries " 

 in general. There is a total glass surface of 6,700 square yards. All 

 the forcing houses are heated with hot-water pipes, and the temperate 

 conservatories, melon frames, &c, are concentrated on the left of the 

 entrance of the grounds. This secures economy and methodic super- 

 vision. The entrance to the establishment is by the Rue du Potager. 

 The mansion had Mansard for architect. The contiguous buildings are 

 the offices and lecture-rooms — the latter once the orangery, so there is 

 plenty of air and light ; the museum, with its collection of eight hundred 

 fruits, moulded and coloured after Nature, classified according to varieties, 

 and into three qualities. Proceeding towards the centre of the garden, 

 through parterres of flowers and rows of ornamental shrubs, the bassin, 

 or pond, eighty-five yards in diameter, is reached, and wherein aquatic 

 plants are arranged. At the head of one of the two flights of stone steps is 

 the bronze statue of La Quintinie, holding a branch in his left hand, and 

 surveying his work. His true monument is " Circumspice." 



The culture of fruits, vegetables, flowers, shrubs, &c, is divided into 

 two groups, that in the open air and the other under glass. The linked 

 parallelogram gardens are devoted and divisioned each to a special 

 culture and to corresponding best varieties of the trees and plants. There 

 is a winter and a botanic garden, also a very important nursery, which 

 plays an invaluable role in the curriculum of studies. There are 15,684 

 fruit trees of all kinds and varieties, 5,500 yards of espaliers, and 

 14,000 square yards of wall space for fruit growing. The importance of 

 the culture generally must be judged from type samples. Thus, there 

 are 5,171 pea r trees, embracing 557 varieties ; 8,566 apple trees, com- 

 prising 309 varieties ; 383 peaches, and 94 varieties ; 915 vines, repre- 

 senting 61 varieties ; 190 cherry trees, of 16 varieties ; and 107 plum 

 trees comprising 25 varieties, &c. These do not include orange, olive, 

 pomegranate, almond, walnut, &c, trees. The forms of the trees are 

 Snaf ordlnar y or fantastic training, vertical, horizontal, oblique, in 

 ^ngie^or superposed rows, palmette, goblet, candelabra, pyramid cones, 



thoroughly extirpated, and fertilisers added to the soil The larR e 

 cellars serve for mushroom raising, and the blanching of seakale, winte r 



salads, &c. 



Respecting floriculture, it is fully taught from culture in the open air, 

 in the temperate conservatories, and the hot houses. Every important 

 flower or ornamental shrub is represented ; in roses there are five 

 hundred varieties. Ab uno disce otnnes. Special attention is given to 

 orchids. The produce of the garden is sold to the public for cash, 

 and Versailles, though it no longer possesses the light of other days, 

 has a large and wealthy population, especially of rich foreigners, who, 

 world-weary, or world-wounded, come there to rest, and to die. 



The instruction given at the National Horticultural School of Ver- 

 sailles is gratuitous ; the number of pupils is limited to one hundred and 

 twenty, of whom forty retire annually, after completing their three years of 

 study. Candidates must not be less than sixteen, and not more than 

 twenty years of aye on entering the garden, save in case of military 

 service, when it is extended to twenty-three years. The pupils wholly 

 work the establishment ; they arrive at five o'clock in the morning in 

 summer, and at six in winter, and remain till nine in the evening ; they 

 knock off work twice in the day for an hour and a half each for meals. 

 They are not entitled to any vacation, but can expect a fortnight in town 

 about August and September. Candidates must submit to an entrance 

 examination if they have not school certificates of efficiency. Before 

 entering a superior grade of studies the pupils are annually examined ; 

 those with a bad record of progress must leave. At the end of the third 

 year the pass examination takes place ; if satisfactory a diploma is 

 given, signed by the Minister of Agriculture. There are six annual 

 scholarships of 1,000 fr. each open to competition, independent of two 

 prizes of 1,200 fr. to be awarded to the best pupils on completing their 

 third year. The latter sum is to enable them to complete their studies 

 in a foreign horticultural school or a leading horticultural establishment 

 in France or elsewhere. Pupils must support themselves, but several 

 horticultural societies, farming syndicates, learned associations, municipal 

 councils, &c, pay the expenses for a young man of promise. The present 

 Director-Professor of the school is M. Nanot, who succeeded the late and 

 original director. M. Hardy, a gentleman, as his name indicates, of 

 English extraction, and of unquestionable ability. There are also nine 

 professors for the chief departments of horticulture, floriculture, orna- 

 mental gardening, and instruction is given in chemistry, geology, 

 &c, as well as in book-keeping, levelling, drawing, and geometry. There 

 are two chief gardeners and two assistants. The pupils under the head 

 gardener visit the most important garden and horticultural establish- 

 ments in the vicinity of Paris, and each pupil must make a report on his 

 visit. The school is well provided with up-to-date educational apparatus ; 

 the walls are well hung with object lessons, and the museum is rich in 

 specimens. In winter four, and in summer two and a-half hours daily 

 are given to study, plus three hours to lectures and examinations, so that 

 from five to eight hours represent the time devoted to out-door manual 



Instruction is given in the workshops— how to repair the 

 materiel, in carpentry, glazing, painting, printing labels, &c. The pupils 

 follow fifteen distinct courses of lectures by the professional staff. For 

 out-door instruction they are divided into five squads of # twenty-four 



and devote a fortnight in rotation to learning forcing, 

 arboriculture, and fruit growing, floriculture in open-air, culture 

 under glass, and the ordinary raising of ^vegetables. On quitting a 

 section every pupil has to make a report upon the operations he 

 witnessed and helped to execute. Since its opening in December, 1874, 

 eight hundred pupils have graduated in the school. The establishment 

 costs the State 90,000 francs a year, of which 30,000 francs are expended 

 in providing the teaching staff, and the rest for working expenses. No 

 account is published of the receipts for sale of produce ; but that is 

 not of vital importance, as institutions of an educational character can 



not be expected to be self-supporting. Edward Conner. 



labour. 



pupils each, 



Vegetables for Exhibition. 



Kohi 



Knol Kohl, or Kohl-Rabi. 



the farm than in the garden, as it makes an excellent food for 

 cattle At the same time, a small quantity should be grown in all large 



forcing ho^^S^t^^s^h'te'^S; * J*""* ™t S Z Serf wea*«Ta a „ S d verT^e 



Black Alicante, Gradiska, Bondales, &c, are the leading grapes ; in It is quite hardy, and thus valuable in severe weather and very muc 



peaches, thirty varieties, figure the Mignonnes, Belle BeaLI, Amsden, trouble is required to bring it to perfection. The seed should be sown at 



not I? ; amon S cherries, the English varieties are preferred, the same time as the principal batch of the brassica tribe, and trans- 



WashS St™ ti? Em P ress Eugenie ; for plums, the Victoria and D , anted as soon as large enough in rows two feet six inches apart, 



jfwseDerries, Raspberries, &c ~~ 



more for raising vegetables. 



There are 500 melon frames and 1,000 



000 pots are annually devoted to its 



doming "fT"* "-s^uici,. One variety of forced strawberry pre- 

 culTur F °« teur M <>rere ; 10, 



Some of fhA U f " ^° USeS - " are devoted to P ine apples of several varieties, 

 first Dinearmi wei . gh nine Pounds. It was in this garden that the 



The v WCre raiSed> in I733 ' in France - 

 excludm^?,^^ p ™P er > some three hundred species and varieties, 



of the thirtv n.nT 6 " 65 '! are raised in measured sub-divisions of some 

 in g is effected h ' se Parated by espalier borderings. 



1 X — --w«. j ww^maavi UKJX UV.1 1X1 Til 6 WcLtCr* 



square and r means of reservoirs situ 



ySmt t*Z ' h f "J*""™" aqued . _. 



displays no si^ n <; f u squares allocated to fruit trees, the soil 

 ceedmg durinJtw ot , ex T ustlon , f r om the same species of tree suc- 



reservoirs situated in the corner of a 



uct ; water cans and hose- 



ground The hoe should be kept constantly employed about the plants 

 to encourage quick growth, and in dry weather the crop should be kept 

 wefl watered, Ind occasionally given good soakings of liquid farmyard 

 manure. No other attention is required to mature the crop .which m*j 

 stand and be drawn upon as desired. A small quantity of Early White 

 vfenna for summer J and Early Purple for winter should be grown 



For horticultural exhibitions, Kohl Rabi is of little use, but at 

 the cattle shows during the autumn it often forms quite a feature, and 

 s most attractive to the general public. In an unlimited ornamental 



both kinos should be -g^"™* 

 ■nareasine the number of kinds and adding to the ctfect than tor tnen 

 alue The roots should be thoroughly washed and left on, and most of 

 IheLves round the bulb carefully trimmed off, leaving only the top 



ceeamg during t™« u , " on irom tne same species ot tree sue- tne leaves rounu u« ~ -7.t , a ' m w cta^ed. 



and the 2f h?° hund ' ed and fourteen years ; the fruits are sound, fresh ones ; nine to twelve examples should be the number stagey 



yield heavy. When an old tree is condemned, the roots are Ald,nham House. Elstree, Herts. E. *^*> 



House, Elstree, Herts 



E. Beckett. 



