OF AGRICULTURE. 203 



perfection, and, on the other side, to cover 

 acres and acres with glass for growing tomatoes, 

 French beans and peas, which undoubtedly 

 will soon be followed by the culture of still 

 plainer vegetables. This movement, as will be 

 seen further on, has been steadily continuing 

 for the last twenty years. 



However, the Channel Islands and Belgium 

 still hold the lead in the development of glass- 

 house culture. The glory of Jersey is, of 

 course, Mr. Bashford's establishment. When 

 I visited it in 1890, it contained 490,000 square 

 feet under glass that is, nearly thirteen acres 

 but seven more acres under glass have been 

 added to it since. A long row of glasshouses, 

 interspersed with high chimneys, covers the 

 ground the largest of the houses being 900 feet 

 long and forty-six feet wide ; this means that 

 about one acre of land, in one piece, is under 

 glass. The whole is built most substantially : 

 granite walls, great height, thick " twenty- 

 seven oz. glass " (of the thickness of three 

 pennies),* ventilators which open upon a length 

 of 200 and 300 feet by working one single handle ; 

 and so on. And yet the most luxurious of these 

 greenhouses was said by the owners to have 

 cost less than Is. the square foot of glass (13d. 



* " Twenty-one oz." and even " fifteen oz." glass is used in 

 the cheaper greenhouses. 



