Besides the Garden in the Bois de Boulogne, the Société d’Acclimatation has other establishments under its control—one at Hyères, one at Chilly-Mazarin, near Paris, one at Pré Catalan, and another at Marseilles, in the South of France.
The Succursale at Hyères is set apart for the cultivation of plants, palms, and trees from hot climates, and these always command a ready sale in Paris for the ornamentation of parks and houses. At Pré Catalan, in well-kept houses, are to be found sixty dairy cows, which are to be seen in summer grazing in the paddocks and fields of the Bois de Boulogne.
At Chilly-Mazarin, on a plot of ground some acres in extent, an overflow establishment was instituted in 1891. Here are to be found dog-kennels, cow-houses, stables, pheasantries, poultry-houses and agricultural products. At Marseilles the Society has another Zoological Garden, in which imported animals rest and get acclimatized before being sent up to Paris.
SEA-LION SUCKLING ITS YOUNG, JARDIN D’ACCLIMATATION, PARIS.
The Jardin d’Acclimatation is situated in that part of the Bois de Boulogne which extends between the Porte des Sablons and the Porte de Madrid, and runs along the Boulevard Maillot. The principal entrance is in the east, near the Porte des Sablons; a second entrance is to be found in the extreme west, near the Porte de Madrid. You can reach it either by the Central Railway, getting out at Neuilly Station or at the Avenue de l’Imperatrice, or by the Courbevoie and Suresnes omnibuses, or, of course, by cab. On concert days there is a special service of omnibuses.
Two prominent stone-and-brick buildings will direct the visitor. After having passed the turnstile, you find in front of you a large carriage-drive, which goes right round the Garden, and from this principal artery the whole network of walks and paths runs through the Garden leading to the different sheds and houses. The visitor finds on his immediate left a large conservatory or winter garden, which shelters from the rigour of winter a beautiful and important collection of plants and trees, which would not live in a low temperature.
Almost in front of this large conservatory you see a building, which is intended for the mechanical fattening of fowls (a system not to be encouraged). Here is to be seen on a big scale M. Martin’s system. The fowls are placed in a huge circular cylinder, three metres high and turning on a pivot, which allows the man to cram all the fowls (which are placed in the boxes ranged in tiers one above another) in this fattening apparatus without changing his position. A car on an elevating rail allows the man easily to reach those birds placed on the highest part of the apparatus, for, by turning a handle, the car rises or descends in front of the boxes. Holding them by the head, he introduces an indiarubber tube into their beaks, and forces the food down their throats by pressing with his foot a pedal, which starts a machine worked by a piston. The play of this pedal is regulated by a dial-plate, which shows the operator the amount of food introduced. This varies according to the strength of the bird to be fattened, and also to its state of fatness. In eighteen days a fowl will go up to more than double its weight, and will be perhaps a pound more at the finish. M. Martin, the inventor of this ingenious system, which allows a man by himself to cram 400 fowls in an hour, had already used it in the department of Allier, at Cusset, near Vichy, and his products, under the name of ‘Phœnix fowls,’ have acquired notoriety. He then asked the Society of the Jardin d’Acclimatation to allow him to construct at his own expense in the Garden a model of his fattening establishment, which he started at his own risk. Visitors can now procure at this establishment fat fowls all ready for the table.
Following on the right a large circular walk, you find, after the fattening establishment, sheds where all kinds of rural and agricultural objects are shown. Here the public can see buildings of every sort applicable to the farm: Swiss cottages made of cut wood, tents, wire-lattices, aviaries, chairs, tables, and garden-seats, elevators, garden-tools, guns and fishing tackle, porcelain and terra-cotta vases—in short, everything which tends to ornament parks and gardens, or to the culture of plants, or the raising of stock. On leaving the exhibition sheds, the first building which catches the eye is the monkey house, in front of the enclosure for storks and river-birds; then you come on the right to the pheasantry, the parrot aviary being attached to a little pheasantry, and on the other side of the way are the ostrich and large-bird enclosures. The large pheasantry follows these, then the upper pheasantry, and next the poultry house, an immense circular monolith building in Coignet mortar, in which there are also enclosures for different sorts of pigeons. On the left are the enclosures of the sheep and goats. After passing the duck-ponds you reach the kangaroo house, and on the left the cattle enclosures. Here the broad road round the Garden divides itself into two; to the right it leads to the Neuilly Gate and Saint James, to the left to the big stable, before which stands a spacious lawn, where the large ruminants graze during the day. Round this lawn the elephants and horses, with various carriages, carry visitors and children. Continuing to follow the big circular road, you find on the right, a little behind the stables, a collection of vines (the most beautiful and most complete in the world), the bee-house, the dairy, and the refreshment-room; to the left, the huts of the llamas and alpacas, the moufflon rock and the antelope house. Next, you visit the aquarium, situated on the right of the large circular road, and then the experimenting garden and the dog-kennels, which face the deer enclosures. Having returned to the big conservatory close by, you find another conservatory full of paroquets and small cage-birds from hot countries.