520 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
r December fi, 1888. 
shire. He, some few others, and myself, had conversations on this par¬ 
ticular point, and also on the general subject of the best means to adopt 
in order that our fruit-growing districts in this county might extend the 
scope of their operations and might take measures to avoid the great 
loss that occurs when the market prices for fruit are very low. Such 
was the case the year before last, when quantities of fruit literally rotted 
on the ground because it did not pay to incur the expeitse of gathering 
and sending it to market. The idea eventually arrived at was that a 
factory might perhaps be established in the heart of one of the districts 
for the conversion of Plums into French Plums and Prunes, and for 
various other processes of fruit preservation. Four or five subscribed a 
small fund to be expended in obtaining information, and, as the result 
of our deliberations, we determined to endeavour to procure the services 
of a Frenchman acquainted with the French Plum process, who would 
come to Westbury and try experiments with our local produce ; and it 
devolved upon myself to carry out this idea. I accordingly inserted 
advertisements in French papeis and corresponded with several French¬ 
men, but with no result beyond ascertaining that great ignorance existed 
on the subject. At last one day I was in the offices of a friend of mine 
in London, when two Frenchmen came in, with one of whom I was 
slightly acquainted. I at once asked him if he could tell me anything 
about French Plums, and he said, “ Oh ! no ; but my friend here, 
M. Calvet, can.” M. Calvet, who is one of the very largest of the 
Bordeaux shippers, then told me that he knew the Plum district well, 
and that he was intimately acquainted with a gentleman, by name 
M. Gajac, who was very largely interested in the Plum trade, and that 
he would at once write to him on my behalf. He did so, and in the 
course of a few days I received a most courteous letter from M. Gajac, 
offering to give me all the information I might desire. A lengthy 
correspondence ensued between us, and M. Gajac assured me it would be 
almost impossible to find a competent Frenchman able and also willing 
to come to Westbury, and even if such a man were found it would entail 
a very considerable outlay, and he gave me a courteous invitation to 
come and see the process on the spot myself. There is an old saying 
that when the mountain would not come to Mahomet, Mahomet had to 
go to the mountain, and so it seemed that I could not do better than 
adopt M. Gajac’s very pleasant advice. So about the middle of August, 
as soon as I heard that the Plum season had commenced, I started off on 
my 500 miles’ journey to the south of France. 
About sixty miles from Bordeaux there falls into the Garonne a fine 
river, which, taking its rise among the mountains of Cevennes, follows a 
course of some 150 miles until its junction with the Garonne. The river 
is called the Lot, and the two rivers together confer the names on the 
department known as Lot and Garonne. For several miles along the 
lower reaches of the Lot, where it flows through a rich alluvial plain, and 
in the country immediately adjacent to the spot where it enters the 
Garonne, is grown the fruit which yields, when specially prepared, the 
product known as French Plums. For over 100 years the industry has 
been fixed in this locality, and still, with the exception of a valley in 
Servia, there is no other place where the same frees are cultivated on a 
large scale. The tree is called Prunier d’ente. Enter is an old word 
meaning to graft, and it is simply so called because this particular 
variety was formerly the only Plum in the district that was ever 
grafted. Now there are practically no Plums other than the Prunes 
d’ente grown in the neighbourhood. Higher up the Garonne round the 
old town of Agen, and in other parts of Southern France, other Plums 
are largely grown, such as the Prunier Commun, the Ste. Catherine, and 
others, and the fruit is treated similarly to that of the Prunier d’ente, 
but the produce is very inferior and only suitable for stewing ; and, I 
believe, that nowhere else except in the Servian valley is the true Prune 
d’ente at present grown, though many experiments have been tried with 
other varieties. None have j et been discovered that will yield the best 
qualities of French Plums. It is rather capricious in its growth, for its 
area of cultivation does not extend very far from the river bank. It 
appears to delight in a deep alluvial soil of a rather sandy nature, but 
which contains a sufficiency of clay to make it very retentive of moisture. 
The centre of the French Plum district may be said to be at Clariac, a 
quaint little old-fashioned town built on a steep hillside overlooking 
the Lot, almost more Spanish than French, its houses shaded from the 
fierce southern sun with wide outspreading leaves and flower-clad 
balconies. Here I was most hospitably received and entertained by 
M. Gajac. 
In this and the neighbouring communes the metayer system has 
long been in full operation, and it appears to work well and harmoni¬ 
ously. The owner of the land engages the metayer and supplies all the 
stock and implements required for the holding. He also keeps in repair 
the house and buildings. The metayer also finds the whole of tjre 
labour except such extra labour as is needed for the harvest. He has 
during the year entire control of the farm, and buys and sells, subject 
if required to the approbation of the owner. He renders account of all 
produce from the holding consumed by himself and his family, and at 
the end of the year the balance of profit is divided equally between him 
and the owner. During the iast few years the metayers have fared 
badly. The phylloxera has devastated the vineyards, and sad it is to 
see acres and acres of land excellent for the growth of Grapes, but fit 
for little else, now deprived of those crops which, till recently, so well 
repaid the cost of cultivation. The holdings vary in extent from ten 
acres to fifty or sixty, and on every holding in the lowlands are to be 
seen rows of the prunier d’ente, separated from each other by long 
strips of cultivated land, where the mild fawn-coloured oxen lazily 
drag the most old fashioned and primitive implements over the easily 
broken soil. The Plums are long shaped, the stalk end being much the 
more pointed ; the colour is red, deepening into a rich violet as the 
Plum ripens ; the skin is extremely tough without being thick or hard ; 
the flesh very firm, containing a large amount of saccharine ; the 
specific gravity much greater than that of several varieties of English 
Plums with which I have made comparison. The tree is a very slow 
grower, requiring ten years to bring it into full bear, though I saw some 
trees of six years old which were favourably situated carrying a good 
crop. 
The fruit matures slowly and is not ripe till long after all other fruit 
in the district—Apricots, Peaches, Green Gages—have been gathered. 
All the apparatus required for the process consists of trays, or claies, as 
they are called, and two or more ovens. The claies are made either of 
wickerwork or wood, and are round or triangular. They are deep- 
enough to carry a single layer of Plums. The sides are high enough to 
allow of their being placed upon each other without crushing the Plums, 
when they are not in the ovens. Every morning each metayer looks- 
over his trees, picks the fruit that is ripe, just before the flesh begins to 
soften. The Plums are brought to the homestead, placed one layer thick 
in the claies, which are first put for an hour or two in the sun or in a 
current of air, and then laid on the floor of the oven. These ovens, or 
“ fours,” are simply just like ordinary bread ovens; they are usually 
built in pairs, each one about 10 feet long and 1 feet wide inside, anil 
are heated by simply burning a certain quantity of wood inside them. 
In some few places etuves, or kilns, are substituted for the “ fours.” 
These are closets of variable dimensions fitted with a small furnace from 
which flues pass under and up the side of the closet, and also with 
various appliances for holding the claies. There seems to be a prefer¬ 
ence for the fours, though the etuves are simple and more convenient in 
every way. When the fresh fruit is first put in the temperature should 
be about 100° Fahrenheit. In the course of a few hours the Plums 
assume a curious puffy appearance, and if the heajt is too great they will 
burst, a result most carefully to be avoided. They are taken out of the 
oven, cooled, and again put in with the temperature at about 135°, again 
withdrawn and cooled, and this time the fruit is turned by placing an. 
empty claie upside down over a full one, and turning them over together. 
They are again put into the oven, this time the heat being raised to- 
about 170°. This operation is repeated until all the Plums are com¬ 
pletely preserved. Some dry more rapidly than others, and they are 
picked out and placed in other claies as they are ready. The more 
slowly the whole operation is performed the better, and the oftener the 
Plums are put into the four the higher will be the quality of the product. 
When ready the Plums are sorted out into various grades according to 
the number (30, 40, 50, 60, and so on up to 130 or more) that it will 
require to weigh a French pound, for curiously enough the old measure 
is adhered to and not the more modern kilogramme. They are then put 
into sacks and carried each week, or oftener, to the markets. Here the 
merchants come and buy, paying prices varying according to the number 
of the Plums required to weigh a pound. Thirty to the pound would be 
worth about 120 francs the 100 pounds ; 40 to the pound 100 francs per 
100 pounds, and so on down to the very lowest grades, which are not 
worth more than 15 francs. The merchants convey their purchases to 
large, cool, airy warehouses, where the fruit is thrown into large bins. 
Women seated at long tables are then employed sorting it over again 
much more carefully than before. The various grades are then packed 
separately in casks and sent to Bordeaux, where the finer qualities are 
unpacked and neatly laid in baskets or boxes. The inferior grades are 
simply exported in bulk. 
I traversed day after day a considerable area of the Plum district, 
and everywhere saw the same Plum trees growing and the fruit being 
treated in the same manner, Everywhere, too, I met with the same, 
good-humoured courtesy. It is a primitive out of-the-way place very 
seldom visited by strangers, and much wonder was often expressed at my 
having travelled so far to learn that of which they could hardly conceive 
that anybody should be ignorant. It is r n interesting country, full of 
memories of the past, and it is curious to think that long years ago the 
whole district belonged for over three centuries to the English Crown. 
I said to one metayer that perhaps his ancestors and mine had been there 
once side by side together. “ Ah, Monsieur,” he said, “ if they were I 
don’t expect your ancestors and mine sat down very comfortably 
together.” A very fertile country it is too, blessed with a glorious 
climate, and were not our time to day to be devoted entirely to fruit I 
could tell of many crops I saw there being cultivated, amongst which 
Tobacco holds a very prominent place. 
The lessons I learnt were these, that it is very easy indeed to manu¬ 
facture French Plums, but you cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's- 
ear, and there is one proviso, which is that you have got the right fruit 
to deal with, but failing this it is perfectly impossible to make the 
higher grades of French Plums. Secondly, that we have not got in 
England the tine prune d'ente or any Plum really nearly resembling it. 
However, I determined on my return to make the best attempt I could 
with our Westbury Plums. Unfortunately it was a most un¬ 
favourable season, for the fruit in England never ripened properly, and 
the continued absence of warm sunshine reduced to very small propor¬ 
tions the amount of saccharine—an ingredient most vitally necessary— 
so that the experiment was made under avowedly unfavourable auspices. 
I have at my brickworks at Mitchcldean a special kiln for burning 
pottery and terra cotta. This kiln has some points of similarity with 
a French fruit ctuve, only much better. It is fired with a special gas 
produced on the spot, and the flame circulates in a hollow wall round 
the kiln, but never enters it. It can be cut off at any moment, and 
