THE CHANNEL ISLANDS AND THEIR 



AGRICULTURE 



The subject assigned me to-night is the Channel Islands 

 and their agriculture. There is no more interesting spot on 

 the face of the globe, and none that displays sharper con- 

 trasts. Geographically belonging to France, territorially 

 they form an outlying dependency of the British crown. 

 Apparently most barren and unfertile of soil, they yield 

 crops rivaling in richness those of the virgin plains of our 

 own great West. Rent and torn by the waves that rush in 

 upon them from the Atlantic, lashed by the refluent surge 

 from the coast of France, and swept by the boiling tides that 

 under favoring circumstances rise to a height of over forty 

 feet, they find in the floating sea-wrack of the very waves 

 which threaten their existence the chief element of their fer- 

 tility. Lying at the very entrance of the English Channel, 

 just where it broadens out and loses itself in the immensity 

 of the ocean, and exposed to every wind that blows, they yet 

 enjoy a climate so equable and mild that the flowers of the 

 tropics bloom there the year round in the open air. 



No less remarkable in their characteristics are the people. 

 Calling themselves Englishmen, they yet speak a patois of 

 French impossible to be understood by any one not native 

 born, and compel its use in school and court. Blindly adher- 

 ent to ancient law and custom, they have made themselves 

 known the world over for the advanced position they have 

 taken on all matters pertaining to agriculture. Jealously re- 



