hrough this valley we were greeted with some
familiar sights and sounds. These were the American box car and
locomotive and the sound of the whistle of a U. S. A. train. We
greeted the American rolling stock as companions, and were truely glad
to see them. We could easily distinguish between the sound of the
whistle of an American locomotive and that of a French engine, the
American whistle being deep and the French shrill. It may seem strange
to think that I comment upon such a small matter as a locomotive
whistle, but when one is in a foreign land, amid foreign scenes and
sounds, a familiar sound is good to hear, even though it is as
unmusical as a deep blast of an American-made locomotive.

Our next stop at a place of importance was at Tours--historic Tours.
This is a city of more than 100,000 inhabitants and is one of the most
interesting cities in France.

I spent several weeks here in a hospital after being gassed on the
Metz front and I will speak in more detail of this city in a later
chapter.

At Tours we were given more freedom than at any previous stop, and
here our officers bought chocolates, tobacco and fruit and distributed
them among the men. These dainties were the first we had since leaving
Brest and were surely appreciated.

After leaving Tours we continued to wind through the Valley of the
Loire along the Loire River, and I must say that the vineyards and
orchards between Tours and Orleans, our next stop, were the prettiest
that I saw in all of France. In this particular part of the valley the
trees and vines are exceedingly prolific, as compared with trees and
vines in other parts of France. They are not, however, as prolific as
those of California. The trees do not attain as large a growth as
those of this State and the vines are less vigorous. The fruit is
neither as large nor does it have the quality of ours. The 1918 fruit
crop was a large one, as measured by French standards, but yield per
acre, I am sure, would be small as compared with the yield per acre of
a first class Sacramento river orchard. The difference of the quality
and the yield as compared with our fruits, is undoubtedly due to the
fact that for centuries the lands of the Loire have been cultivated,
while our lands are new and contain all their natural richness. The
vineyards are planted differently from ours. The vines are four feet
apart one way and eight feet apart another, while ours are usually
planted eight or ten feet a