Forcing Fruits for Market in France 
CHERRY TREES FORCED IN POTS 
Maroc, the Appley Towers, the Black Alicante, the 
Madressfiekl, the Barbosa, the Alphonse Lavallee 
and the Big Colman. 
But the horticulturist is to be rewarded for his 
pains, for now comes the harvest. The picking of the 
grapes begins the 15th of April and lasts until the end 
of November; each hothouse furnishes from 1100 
to 1500 pounds of grapes, which are sold in the mar¬ 
kets of Paris from 25 cents to $1.50 the pound, 
according to the time of year, and the variety and 
beauty of the fruit. 
As coming next in importance among the forced 
fruits let us mention peaches. The precocious kinds 
are chosen by preference. They graft them on the 
almond tree and they are placed along the glass sides 
of the hothouse, much as they place the grape vines, 
being careful that the wood of the tree does not touch 
the iron, for if not avoided, after eight days of con¬ 
tact, a cancer or malignant growth is formed. The 
nature of this cultivation necessitates both great at¬ 
tention and many hands. 
Independent of the careful attention given to all 
trellised fruit trees, forced peach trees exact an addi¬ 
tional amount of watchfulness and care by reason 
of their liability to attack from ants and other plant 
foes. For this reason, frequent sprayings with 
nicotined water are made necessary to insure their 
destruction. As a result, however, of the increased 
care and vigilance given the trees which bear this most 
luscious fruit, they gather in a hothouse, sixty feet 
by thirty, from 1800 to 2000 peaches, from the ist of 
April to the 15th of July, each peach selling at an 
average of about twenty-five to thirty cents in Paris. 
However, the first peaches often bring a much higher 
price. 
And with what respect they handle these delicacies! 
Great golden apricots—whose lusciousness cannot be 
excelled—their soft, downy coats undisturbed by 
unnecessary handling. The brilliantly colored nec¬ 
tarines, however, are carefully brushed before plac¬ 
ing them on the cotton in the packing boxes. In 
the grape baskets they separate each bunch with tissue 
paper, and they lay the peaches on a soft bed of cot¬ 
ton so that they will arrive at their destination with 
their velvety, purplish down. Apricots and necta¬ 
rines are not at all common in the markets. The 
former has the same quality of skin as the peach, 
with a smooth stone like that of the plum. The 
flavor is a distinctive one, rich and full of character. 
French gardeners cultivate also in pots, cherry trees, 
currants, pear trees and even vines and peaches 
destined to be sold when they reach their maturity. 
These plants ordinarily pass two years in the nursery 
and two years in a hothouse; they then find pur¬ 
chasers at from $1.00 to ^20.00, according to the time 
of year. However, this cultivation of fruit in pots is 
only an accessory to the already flourishing industry 
of the suburban horticulturists about Paris. 
81 
