18 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1897. 



and gardens show results as much ahead of ordinary farming as Had- 

 win's Guernseys or Kendall's Jerseys go ahead of a Texas stump- 

 tailed heifer that gives a pint of blue milk a day when in full flow. 



In the Island of Jersey, which is still a land of open field culture, 

 its farmers obtain from tlieir land twice as much as the best farmers 

 in England. This island, like the suburbs of Paris, is a land of mar- 

 ket-gardening, and it has lately developed largely into greenhouse 

 culture ; there are greenhouses all over the island, they rise amid the 

 fields and from behind the trees, and they are piled upon one 

 another on the steep slopes of the hills. 



The island cultivates 28,717 acres in roots, and nourishes its popu- 

 lation of about two persons to the acre ; the chief crop consists of 

 potatoes, of which they grow about 70,000 tons each year, equal to 

 2,613,000 bushels, which would represent a money value, to-day, of 

 2,000,000 dollars; they export, mostly toP^nglaud and America, 1,500 

 cows each year. So that, altogether, they obtain agricultural products 

 to the amount of S250 per acre, for each acre of the surface of the 

 island. And yet Jersey hardly knows what intensive culture means; 

 to learn this, one must go to the sister island of Guernsey, which 

 nourishes 1300 persons on each square mile. Guernsey, like the sub- 

 urbs of Paris, is a land of market-gardening, which has of late largely 

 developed into greenhouse culture. All over the island, especially in 

 the north, wherever you look you see greenhouses ; they rise amid the 

 fields and from behind the trees ; they are piled upon one another, on 

 the steep slopes of the hills facing the harbor. 



At present Guernsey exports every year 500 tons (say 1,120,000 

 lbs.) of grapes, representing a money value of 8200,000. A INIr. Bash- 

 ford has vines (under glass) covering 13 acres, in regard to which, a 

 well-known English writer says "the money return of these 13 acnjs far 

 exceeds those of an English farm of 1,300 acres." The last year's crop 

 was 50,000 lbs. of grapes, 80 tons (179,000 lbs.) of tomatoes, 60,000 

 lbs. of peas and beans, besides other crops. Guernsey cultivates 28,000 

 acres in roots, raisiugof potatoes alone 2,600,000 bushels, with a money 

 value of over $2,000,000; they export 1,500 cows each year; and 

 altogether they produce $250 for each acre of the island. 



When one walks through these glass-roofed gardens which never 

 know faikire, and which yield successive crops throughout the year, 

 one is reminded of the gardens of Alcinous, wherein "the fruit they 

 bear falls not, nor ever fails in wintertime nor summer, but is yielded 

 through the year. The ever blowing west wind causes some to swell 

 and some to ripen ; pear succeeds to pear ; to apple, apple ; grape to 



