8 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



population of about two inhabitants to each acre, or 1300 

 inhabitants to the square mile, and there is not one writer 

 on agriculture who, after having paid a visit to this island, 

 does not praise the well-being of the Jersey peasants and the 

 admirable results which they obtain in their small farms of 

 from five to twenty acres very often less than five acres 

 by means of a rational and intensive culture. 



" Most of my readers will probably be astonished to learn 

 that the soil of Jersey, which consists of decomposed granite, 

 with no organic matter in it, is not at all of surprising fertility, 

 and that its climate, though more sunny than the climate of 

 the British Isles, offers many drawbacks on account of the 

 small amount of sun heat during the summer and of the cold 

 winds in spring." * 



In a small plot the character of the soil is of little conse- 

 quence. We hear of one garden in New York City on the 

 roof of a big building where the janitor smuggled up the 

 needed soil in baskets. 



The school gardens in New York City, some in a space 

 as small as a hearth rug, one yard by two, show how to use 

 a very small patch of land to the best advantage. Nor need 

 it take more time than you can afford. 



1 "The successes accomplished lately in Jersey are entirely due 

 to the amount of labor which a dense population is putting on the 

 land ; to a system of land-tenure, land-transference, and inheritance 

 very different from those which prevail elsewhere ; to freedom from 

 State taxation ; and to the fact that communal institutions have 

 been maintained down to quite a recent period, while a number 

 of communal habits and customs of mutual support, derived there- 

 from, are alive to the present time." ("Fields, Factories and 

 Workshops.") 



"It will suffice to say that on the whole the inhabitants of Jersey 

 obtain agricultural products to the value of $250 to each acre of the 

 aggregate surface of land." (Same, page 113.) 



