ADDRESSES 181 



cow cabbages. They reach a height of eight to ten feet. I 

 myself measured one that was over eleven, and at the agri- 

 cultural rooms at St. Helier there is preserved the record 

 of one whose stalk measured sixteen. It takes a year for 

 these plants to mature. They are set in November or De- 

 cember, about two feet apart, and grow all through the 

 following season. The ground is hoed up against them when 

 they have reached a certain height, having been previously 

 enriched with sea-weed. The leaves are stripped off as 

 they become large, being used either for feeding cattle or 

 packing butter, and the plants are left to spindle up with a 

 small crown at the top. The stalks, which occasionally take 

 on tree-like dimensions, are used as palisades for fences or 

 poles for beans, but most frequently they are shellacked 

 over or varnished and made into canes, selling readily to 

 tourists at prices ranging from fifty cents to a couple of 

 dollars. 



From what has been said it will be readily conjectured 

 that the potato is the chief crop. The greatest care is taken 

 in the selection of seed, and they are handled as tenderly as 

 the choicest fruit, each tuber being picked up separately and 

 placed in an open crate, only one layer deep. In some 

 sheltered spot or in a shed these crates are piled up one 

 above the other till ready for use. When preparing for 

 planting, these are placed in some warm corner and the 

 potatoes allowed to sprout, selection being made of those 

 shoots which have formed a healthy top and spring from 

 a good eye. About twenty-two hundred-weight of seed per 

 acre is used, being set about ten inches apart, and in rows 

 some twenty-two or three inches wide. Cultivated in the 

 open air, they are ready for market in April and May, but 



