6 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
French Orchards and Nurseries After the War 
By Major Lloyd C. Stark, Ex-President of the American Association of Nurserymen and Ex-President of the 
Mississippi Valley Apple Growers’ Association. Vice President of Stark Bros.’ Nurseries and Orchards Co. 
FTER the Armistice was signed and we moved 
hack from the front, I made several trips 
through the French orchard and nursery sec¬ 
tions. 
In comparing the French orchards with American or¬ 
chards we must realize lirst of all that there is no such 
thing in France as a big commercial orchard industry as 
we know it in America, hut France does produce an enor¬ 
mous quantity of fine fruits for the simple reason that 
practically the entire country is spotted and dotted with 
orchards and fruit gardens. 
The grape industry on the contrary is commercialized 
and organized on a gigantic scale. This is necessarily 
true for the simple reason that Frenchmen very seldom 
drink water, using their light wine instead. There are 
several reasons for this: First, the French water in 
many sections is dangreous. One ol the most important 
things in our army was to see that the soldiers did not 
drink water until it was properly boiled or sterilized in a 
“lister” hag by the addition of chloride of lime disinfec¬ 
tant. 
On our arrival in France we landed at Bordeaux, prob¬ 
ably the largest wine market in the world, and the center 
of export for all the French vineyard industry. Bor¬ 
deaux lies some fifty miles hack from the coast on the 
Gironde River. On entering the mouth of the Gironde as 
soon as the Sand Dunes are passed we found beautiful 
vineyards on every hand, and as we steamed up the river 
the French vineyardists and peasants left their work 
among the grape vines to line up along the banks and wel¬ 
come us to France. This was just after the first Amer¬ 
ican exploit at Gantigny and Chateau Thierry and you 
may be sure there was great warmth in the French wel¬ 
come. 
For fifty miles up to Bordeaux on either side, as far 
as the eye could reach, we saw almost solid vineyards. 
This same condition existed in many other sections of 
France, both along the southwestern coast and the Medi¬ 
terranean shores. Also in the old Province of Burgundy 
where the famous Burgundy wines are made, Dijon being 
the center of the Burgundy district. The climate in south¬ 
western and the south of France is, of course, semi-trop¬ 
ical and citrus fruits flourish and are grown in abun¬ 
dance. In the northwestern, central and northern sec¬ 
tions of France, deciduous fruits are raised in great quan¬ 
tities. Every little home has its fruit garden and you will 
see pear trees growing over the stone walls pruned up in 
fan shape, in every conceivable design and fashion. 
In Burgundy in the garden of the cheateau where I had 
my headquarters after the Armistice I saw a row of dwarf 
apple trees 50 years old and the trees were only about 
2-2y 2 feet high, the base of the trees being only about 4 
to 6 inches in diameter. They prune them back every 
year almost like our vineyardists prune a grape vine. 
They were grafted on the wild dog briar of France. 
Up to the north of France in the vicinity of Calais and 
Bologne, where I spent a month or so, along the British 
front, the cider and apple industry is considerable, but in 
Normandy I saw what I considered the best orchard land 
and the best orchards in France. And it is in Normandy 
that the greater portion of the apples are produced for 
the famous French cider, also apples for market. The 
land in Normandy struck me as being more like our 
American orchard and farm land than any I saw in 
France. The fields were larger and there was a certain 
similarity between their forest trees and those we see 
in the central states of America. 
Most of the orchards are grown in sod. Very few of 
the orchards, except those planted in gardens, were cul¬ 
tivated. Their style of tree is entirely different from ours. 
They head them about 5 or 6 ft. high and simply have a 
flat sort of umbrella-shape head in most instances. 
I inquired as to which were the most satisfactory and 
most profitable commercial varieties. In most every case 
I found each little village and each little locality had var¬ 
ieties of its own. No variety of apple seems to be gen¬ 
erally disseminated or universally popular, tho I was told 
that in many cases the favorite local varieties were prob¬ 
ably one and the same with the favorites in some other 
locality—simply grown under another name. 
I found that the apples used in making cider were 
blended; some sweet apples or crabs and some so-called 
“bitter” ones. The Frenchmen claim only by this blend¬ 
ing could the exceptional quality of cider be produced. 
The French method of making cider on a large com¬ 
mercial scale, will some day become popular in this 
country when its worth is appreciated, no doubt. 
The pear industry in France is much more important 
than in the United States. They seem to have no trouble 
with the blight, which, of course, is largely due to the cli¬ 
mate. The most popular variety was the “English Wil¬ 
liam” which is none other than our dear old Bartlett. I 
saw large commercial orchards that were paying big 
profits on Williams in the neighborhood of Angers, and 
also up in Normandy. 
In many sections of France fruit trees are used to line 
all the highways. This is a practice that should be, and 
some day will be, carried on in our country. Think of 
the millions of acres now entirely idle that could be pro¬ 
ducing fruit here in America if we planted hardy varieties 
of fruit trees along the state and county roads, to say 
nothing of the national highways. Many claim that it 
can’t be done satisfactorily in this country, but there is 
absolutely no argument there. The French do it and we 
are just as smart as the French. We have better var¬ 
ieties and we have just as good soil and climatic condi¬ 
tions. Some day we will do it. 
Up in the country to the north of Verdun, in the edge 
of the Ardennes Mountains, as we pushed the German 
armies back through the Argonne and Woevre Forests 
we saw many fine apple orchards that had been uprooted 
and wantonly destroyed by the enemy. It will take a 
long time to bring these orchards back again, and a great 
