202 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



part of the country remarkable for the culture of Apricots. The 

 variety Peach, and to some extent the less known Precoce de 

 Saumur — closely related to l'Alberge de Montgame — are the prin- 

 cipal ones grown. The last-named is a good early sort, and is 

 superior to the Apricots of the Var. Unfortunately, however, 

 owing to the latitude of the district, the fruits reach the Paris 

 markets rather late for realising very high prices. The average 

 yield in this district is only estimated to return 10 francs a tree 

 when in full bearing, and the number of trees seems to be about 

 a thousand. Under the Apricots, Strawberries are grown with 

 great success, and in the full season of their ripening two vans 

 are daily loaded on the railway at Saumur Station for the Paris 

 markets. 



About twenty-two miles to the west of Paris, and along the 

 banks of the Seine for a distance of about five miles, is to be 

 found some remarkable land, which for centuries has been utilised 

 for the culture of Apricots. This highly favoured locality extends 

 in a circle as far as the parishes of Triel and Vaux, sheltered 

 from the cold winds of the north and north-east by the heights 

 of Hautil. In this region the soil is warm and calcareous, and 

 everyone grows Apricots. Spring frosts rarely make themselves 

 felt there, so that the crops ripen with great regularity. The 

 trees (often more like large bushes) are planted from 12 feet to 

 15 feet apart each way. The stems are never very tall, 3 feet to 

 4 feet at the most, and oftentimes the branches bear fruit on a 

 level with the ground, and thus the trees assume, more or less 

 regularly, a globular or pyramidal form. The method of 

 pruning back of the fruiting branches to three or four eyes 

 is the same as that used for Peach-trees, and it is, speaking 

 generally, the only method to which cultivators attach any im- 

 portance. 



Three years after planting, the trees generally bear fruit, the 

 quantity increasing year by year, and the trees thrive without 

 any particular attention being given them. Of course poor trees 

 will be met with in this locality occasionally, but it may generally 

 be concluded that such are quite the old trees of the neighbour- 

 hood, veterans two hundred years old being occasionally met with. 

 It may be said that the trees are at their best for fruit producing 

 between the ages of ten and fifty years. 



In spite of the favourable conditions referred to, it cannot be 



