nqt be added that, like all his predecessors, 

 Mr. Haggard disposes of the legend of extra- 

 ordinary natural fertility of the soil, and shows 

 at what a considerable expenditure the heavy 

 crops of potatoes are obtained.* 



However, it is in the small " vineries " that 

 one sees, perhaps, the most admirable results. 

 As I walked through such glass-proofed kitchen 

 gardens, I could not but admire this recent 

 conquest of man. I saw, for instance, three- 

 fourths of an acre heated for the first three 

 months of the year, from which about eight 

 tons of tomatoes and about 200 Ib. of Erench 

 beans had been taken as a first crop in April, 

 to be followed by two crops more. In these 

 houses one gardener was employed with two 

 assistants, a small amount pf coke was consumed, 

 and there was a gas engine for watering purr 

 poses, consuming only 18s. worth of gas during 

 the quarter. I saw again, in cool greenhouses 

 -simple plank and glass shelters=--pea plants 

 covering the walls, for the length of one quarter 

 of a mile, which already had yielded by the end 

 of April 3,200 Ib. of exquisite peas and were 

 yet as full of pods as if not one had been taken 

 off. 



I saw potatoes dug from the soil in a cool 

 greenhouse, in April, to the amount of five 



* Rural England, L, p. 103. 



