118 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



nessed to a small cultivator, with two straps over her shoul- 

 ders, dragging it, and a child or a woman behind guiding it. 

 After they have gone through the rows the}^ set to work 

 with their small iron ploughs and work-in between. They 

 are interested in making the form pay, and ever}' man, 

 woman and child goes into the field and Avorks. 



Question. AVhat is the quality of the fertilizers used on 

 the island of Jersey ? 



President Goodell. Thirty thousand loads of sea wrack, 

 besides large quantities of artificial fertilizers. They spoke 

 of it as guano mostly. They also use the manure that they 

 get from their cattle. 



If you have no objection, I would like to give you a 

 little idea with reference to the local flora of the islands. 

 On those islands there are nine hundred and seventy-four 

 different species of flowering plants, ranging clear into the 

 tropical varieties. There are sixty different varieties of 

 trees and shrubs. There are more than one hundred dif- 

 erent varieties of grasses. There are over four hundred 

 lichens. One of the very interestinir thino-s about those 

 islands is that the rocks on those j^ortions of the islands 

 fronting the south and west are very heavily covered 

 with lichens, so much so as to hide the color of the rocks 

 entirely. As you approach the land from certain directions 

 the rocks, instead of naked granite, are covered by the 

 lichens, which give them a beautiful appearance. There are 

 over seventy-five different kinds of mushrooms that grow 

 there on the islands. 



Secretary Sessions. There is one fact that perhaps will 

 give us a better idea of the comparative fertility of the soil 

 there than we can get in any other way, and it is this. We 

 have in ^Massachusetts several single towns of a larger acre- 

 age than either one of those islands, and if any one of those 

 towns should yield the amount of productions of which the 

 lecturer has given us a list, it Avould be considered some- 

 thing marvellous. 



Adjourned to ^\'(■(ln(!sday, December 7, at D.^O. 



