THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 113 



Mr. Thomson adds, " they are sold at the tenth or twen- 

 tieth part of the above prices. Cheap coal cheap 

 grapes ; that is the whole secret" 



Large vineries and immense establishments for grow- 

 ing flowers under glass are of an old standing in this 

 country, and new ones are continually built on a grand 

 scale. Entire fields are covered with glass at Cheshunt, 

 at Broxburn (fifty acres), at Finchley, at Bexley, at 

 Swanley, at Whetstone, and so on, to say nothing of 

 Scotland. Worthing is also a well-known centre for 

 growing grapes and tomatoes; while the greenhouses 

 given to flowers and ferns at Upper Edmonton, at Chel- 

 sea, at Orpington, and so on, have a world-wide reputa- 

 tion. And the tendency is, on the one side, to bring 

 grape culture to the highest degree of perfection, and, on 

 the other side, to cover acres and acres with glass for 

 growing tomatoes, French beans and peas, which un- 

 doubtedly will soon be followed by the culture of still 

 plainer vegetables. 



At the present time the- Channel Islands and Belgium 

 take the lead in the development of glasshouse culture. 

 The glory of Jersey is, of course, Mr. Bashford's estab- 

 lishment. When I visited it in 1890, it contained 

 490,000 square feet under glass that is, nearly thirteen 

 acres, but seven more acres under glass have been added 

 to it since. A long row of glasshouses, interspersed with 

 high chimneys, covers the ground the largest of the 

 houses being 900 feet long and forty-six feet wide ; 

 this means that about one acre of land, in one piece, 

 is under glass. The whole is built most substantially : 

 granite walls, great height, thick "twenty-seven oz. 

 glass " (of the thickness of three pennies),* ventilators 

 which open upon a length of 200 and 300 feet by work- 

 ing one single handle ; and so on. And yet the most 

 luxurious of these greenhouses was said by the owners 







* " Twenty-one oz." and even " fifteen oz." glass is used in the cheaper 

 greenhouses. 



o 



