114 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



to have cost less than is. the square foot of glass (136!. 

 the square foot of ground), while the other houses have 

 cost much less than that. From 5d. to pd. the square 

 foot of glass * is the habitual cost, without the heating 

 apparatus 6d. being a current price for the ordinary 

 glasshouses. 



But it would be hardly possible to give an idea of 

 all that is grown in such glasshouses, without producing 

 photographs of their insides. In 1890, on the 3rd of 

 May, exquisite grapes began to be cut in Mr. Bashford's 

 vineries, and- the crop was continued till October. In 

 other houses, cartloads of peas had already been 

 gathered, and tomatoes were going to take their place 

 after a thorough cleaning of the house. The 20,000 

 tomato plants, which were going to be planted, had to 

 yield no less than eighty tons of excellent fruit (eight 

 to ten pounds per plant). In other houses melons were 

 grown instead of the tomatoes. Thirty tons of early 

 potatoes, six tons of early peas, and two tons of early 

 French beans had already been sent away in April. As 

 to the vineries, they yielded no less than twenty-five tons 

 of grapes every year. Besides, very many other things 

 were grown in the open air, or as catch crops, and all 

 that amount of fruit and vegetables was the result of 

 the labour of thirty-six men and boys only, under the 

 supervision of one single gardener the owner himself; 

 true that in Jersey, and especially in Guernsey, every 

 one is a gardener. About 1000 tons of coke were burnt 

 to heat these houses. Mr. W. Bear, who has visited the 

 same establishment in 1886, was quite right to say that 

 from these thirteen acres they obtained money returns 

 equivalent to what a farmer would obtain from 1300 

 acres of land. 



However, it is in the small " vineries " that one sees, 

 perhaps, the most admirable results. As I walked 



* It is reckoned by measuring the height of the front and back walls 

 and the length of the two slopes of the roof. 



