134 THE POSSIBILITIES 



when the glass conservatory will be considered 

 as a necessary appendix to the field, both for 

 the growth of those fruits and vegetables 

 which cannot succeed in the open air, and for 

 the preliminary training of most cultural plants 

 during the earlier stages of their life. 



Hcime-grown fruit is always preferable to the 

 half-ripe produce which is imported from 

 abroad, and the additional work required for 

 keeping a young plant under glass is largely 

 repaid by the incomparable superiority of the 

 crops. As to the question of labour, when we 

 remember the incredible amount of labour 

 which has been spent on the Rhine and in 

 Switzerland for making the vineyards, their 

 terraces, and stone walls, and for carrying the 

 soil up the stony crags, as also the amount of 

 labour which is spent every year for the culture 

 of those vineyards and fruit gardens, we are 

 inclined to ask, which of the two, all taken, re- 

 quires less of human labour a vinery (I mean 

 the cold vinery) in a London suburb, or a vine- 

 yard on the Rhine, or on Lake Leman ? And 

 when we compare the prices realised by the 

 grower of grapes round London (not those which 

 are paid in the West-end fruit shops, but those 

 received by the grower for his grapes in Septem- 

 ber and October) with those current in Switzer- 

 land or on the Rhine during the same months, 



