Good fruit is more abundant and cheaper in the United States than
anywhere in Europe. When sun-ripened and picked at the right time, it
is all that fruit should be. Unfortunately, it is not usually brought
into our markets in that condition.
The Paris restaurants have a way of adorning their entrance with
a stand covered with various kinds of properly ripened fruit, the
fragrance of which serves as an appetizer preceding the hors d'œuvre
or the soup. They are extra choice fruits, and expensive, but in the
markets one can buy the same very much more reasonably.
In the raising of fruit the French rely less on climate than on their
own skill and care. The best peaches eaten in Paris do not come from
the Sunny South, but from the neighborhood of the city, where they
are grown against walls, and carefully cultivated and protected. When
visiting France at the request of the London "Times" to study the
methods which have made fruit in that country so good, Mr. W. Robinson
found it a common thing to see a professor of fruit-culture and his
class assembled round a tree, pruning it and discussing every operation
as it goes on.
The pupils have much to learn, for the French do not simply cultivate
trees in orchards as we do, but subject them to much trimming and
bending of the branches so as to secure the best distribution of the
sap and the greatest amount of sunlight and warmth.
The Japanese have taught us how to prune a chrysanthemum plant so as
to make it produce giant blossoms. Our florists make use of the same
method to concentrate the sap and vigor of a root and stem in a single
perfect American Beauty rose. It is not size alone that is aimed
at. Sometimes the result of such a method is a thing like the Belle
Angevine pear which, though flavorless, may fetch a guinea in London
because of its size and beauty. As a rule, however, Flavor is carefully
safe-guarded. The leaves are kept trimmed so as to enable the sun to do
its best in developing an aroma.
Outside of France the finest collection of espalier fruit trees I have
seen is on Paderewski's estate, at Morges, on the Swiss side of Lake
Geneva. It is surprising what a variety of forms the trees can be made
to assume, as the fancy of the cultivator decides.