20 



THE GUERNSEY BREED 



Gateway at Les Blancs Bois. 



The tops of many of these earth roadside fences are 

 covered with gorse, as are many of the cliffs and other waste 

 lands. The gorse, known also as furze, may be of added 

 interest to some, since it has given rise to the saying: "Love 

 will go out of fashion when the gorse ceases to bloom." One 

 can find large quantities of this particular plant in bloom 365 

 days in ordinary years and 366 days in leap years. It is an 

 evergreen plant and, when young and tender, the new growth 

 is sometimes cut and used as forage crop, but later it becomes 

 woody, and the stalks are bound into bundles and used for 

 fuel in the fireplaces and kitchen ranges. 



These roads are all built of granite and are kept in per- 

 fect condition, it" even being the duty of the children, ap- 

 parently, to sweep up the droppings of the horses, for use as 

 fertilizer; and in town the streets are not only swept but, 

 as the hills are steep, they are sprinkled with finely crushed 

 granite to keep the horses from slipping. Motor cars are 

 now very numerous on the island. A large part of them are 

 of American make, so that the islanders are beginning to re- 

 turn a few of the dollars w r e have paid them for their cattle. 

 The horses used on the island, about 6,000 in number, come 

 from France or England and are usually of excellent type of 

 the smaller, more active cart horse. 



