230 FIELDS, FACTORIES AND WORKSHOPS. 



J. THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 



The excellent state of agriculture in Jersey and Guernsey 

 has often been referred to in the agricultural and general 

 literature of this country, so I need only refer to the works 

 of Mr. W. E. Bear (Journal of the Agricultural Society, 1888 ; 

 Quarterly Review, 1888; British Farmer, etc.) and to the 

 exhaustive work of D. H. Ansted and R. G. Latham, The Chan- 

 nel Islands, third edition, revised by E. Toulmin Nicolle 

 (London, Allen, 1893). 



Many English writers, certainly not those just named, are 

 inclined to explain the successes obtained in Jersey by the 

 wonderful climate of the islands and the fertility of the soil. 

 As to climate, it is certainly true that the yearly record of 

 sunshine in Jersey is greater than in any English station. 

 It reaches from 1842 hours a year (1890) to 2300 (1893), 

 and thus exceeds the highest aggregate sunshine recorded in 

 any English station by from 168 to 336 hours (exclusively 

 high maximum in 1894) a year; May and August seeming 

 to be the best favoured months.* But, to quote from the 

 just mentioned work of Ansted and Latham : 



" There is, doubtless, in all the islands, and especially in 

 Guernsey, an absence of sunheat and of the direct action of the 

 sun's rays in summer, which must have its effect, and a 

 remarkable prevalence of cold, dry, east wind in late spring, re- 

 tarding vegetation " (p. 407). Every one who has spent, be 

 it only two or three weeks in late spring in Jersey, must 

 know by experience how true this remark is. Moreover, 

 there are the well-known Guernsey fogs, and " owing also 

 to rain and damp the trees suffer from mildew and blight, 

 as well as from various aphides ". The same authors re- 

 mark that the nectarine does not succeed in Jersey in the 

 open air " owing to the absence of autumn heat " ; that " the 

 wet autumns and cold summers do not agree with the 

 apricot," and so on. 



If Jersey potatoes are, on the average, three weeks in 

 advance of those grown in Cornwall, the fact is fully explained 

 by the continual improvements made in Jersey in view of 



* Ten Years of Sunshine in the British Isles, 1881-1890. 



