for weeds. Not a word as to what he had gone through or why he 
did not move to a safer place. 
The second reason I have given for the survival of the nurseries, 
has been their small size; in fact the first great contrast to be noticed 
between American and French nurseries is the fact that the French 
nurseries are so very small. There is nothing there to compare in 
size with such places as Bobbink & Atkins, Pierson's, Dreer's, An- 
dorra Nurseries and the like. While there are, of course, some large 
nurseries of 25, or 50, or 100 acres, the great bulk of the business is 
carried on by men cultivating not more than 3 or 4 or 5 acres, and 
they do the actual labor themselves with thq aid of their wives and 
children. In such a nursery, if the man of the family went to the war 
his wife and children carried it on almost as well as he had. Further- 
more in the larger nurseries where the actual fiteld work is not done 
by the owner's family, the managing and clerical end of the business 
is done, not by hired employees, but by the family. When I visited, 
for instance, one of the largest wholesale growers in France, E, Tur- 
bat & Co., of Orleans, a firm which has in the past exported millions 
of plants to America, and which has under cultivation besides the 
home nursery of about 5 acres, a number qf 10 acre patches outside 
of the city, I discovered why M. Turbat would never have to adver- 
tise in the Sunday paper for a nursery manager, a stenographer or 
bookkeeper, for he introduced me to his wife, his sister-in-law, his 
father-in-law and his two daughters, all of whom were working in the 
office with him, I was never able to find out what remuneration, if 
any, such families received, but it is clear that if there is any extra 
work to be done they stay and do it without charging time and half 
for overtime. When these daughters marry instead of leaving home it 
is more Hkely that their husbands will come and live with M. Turbat 
and work in his nurs*ery. You will see that even in the larger nur- 
series if the man of the family went into the army his wife understood 
the business as well as he did and was able to continue it, in fact one 
of the most important nurseries in Orleans, Gauguin & Company, 
was managed throughout the war by Mme. Gauguin, while her sons 
were fighting for France. You can see from the above facts, also, some 
of the reasons of the low cost of production of nursery stock in France, • 
to which must be added the fact that the French people of this class 
have but few needs, are satisfied to live in houses without light or 
heat or running water and consider automobiles and moving pictures 
only for the nobility and millionaires. 
Lastly, although many of their men have gone to the war never to 
return, the French peasant women are as able to work in the fields as 
the men were. They had been used in the nursery business before 
the war but not to a great extent, and therefore the loss of the men 
15 
