POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 189 



At the present time no less than 1,075,000 acres 

 are given in France to market-gardening and 

 intensive fruit culture, and a few years ago it 

 was estimated that the average yield of every 

 acre given to these cultures attains 33, 10s.* 

 Their character, as well as the amount of skill 

 displayed in, and labour given to, these cultures, 

 will best appear from the following illustrations. 



About Roscoff, which is a great centre in 

 Brittany for the export to England of such pota- 

 toes as will keep till late in summer, and of all 

 sorts of vegetables, a territory, twenty-six miles 

 in diameter, is entirely given to these cultures, 

 and the rents attain and exceed 5 per acre. 

 Nearly 300 steamers call at Roscoff to ship 

 potatoes, onions and other vegetables to London 

 and different English ports, as far north as New- 

 castle. Moreover, as much as 4,000 tons of 

 vegetables are sent every year to Paris, f And 

 although the Roscoff peninsula enjoys a specially 

 warm climate, small stone walls are erected every- 

 where, and rushes are grown on their tops in 

 order to give still more protection and heat to 

 the vegetables. | The climate is improved as 

 well as the soil. 



* Charles Baltet, IS Horticulture dans les cinq Parties du 

 Monde. Ouvrage couronne par la Societe Nationale d' Horticulture. 

 Paris (Hachette), 1895. 



f Charles Baltet, loc. cit. 



j Ardouin Dumazet, Voyage en France, vol. v., p. 10. 



