CHAPTER V. 



THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE-(mtfu^. 



Extension of market gardening and fruit growing: in France; in the 

 United States Culture under glass Kitchen gardens under glass 

 Hothouse culture : in Guernsey; in Belgium Conclusion. 



ONE of the most interesting features of the present 

 evolution of agriculture is the extension lately taken 

 by intensive market gardening of the same sort as has 

 been described in the third chapter. What formerly 

 was limited to a few hundreds of small gardens, is 

 now spreading with an astonishing rapidity. In this 

 country the area given to market gardens has more 

 than doubled within the last sixteen years, and attained, 

 in 1894, 88,210 acres, as against 40,582 acres in 1879.* 

 But it is especially in France, Belgium and America that 

 this branch of culture has lately taken a great develop- 

 ment (See Appendix M.) 



At the present time no less than 1,075,000 acres are 

 given in France to market-gardening and intensive 

 fruit culture, and a few years ago it was estimated 

 that the average yield of every acre given to these 

 cultures attains 33 los.f Their character, as well 

 as the amount of skill displayed in, and labour given 

 to, these cultures, will best appear from the following 

 illustrations. 



* Charles Whitehead, Hints on Vegetable and Fruit Farming, London 

 (J. Murray), 1890. The Gardener's Chronicle, aoth April, 1895. 



f Charles Baltet, L 'Horticulture dans les cinq Parties du Monde. 

 Ouvrage couronne par la Societe Nationale d? Horticulture. Paris 

 ^Hachette), 1895. 



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