OF AGRICULTURE. 209 



" lean to " or " one roof " system, and the back 

 wall, ten feet high, and the two side walls are 

 in simple grooved boards, standing upright. The 

 whole is supported by uprights inserted into 

 concrete pillars. They are said to cost not more 

 than 5d. the square foot, of glass-covered ground. 

 And yet, even such plain and cheap houses yield 

 excellent results. The potato crop which had been 

 grown in some of them was excellent, as also the 

 green peas.* 



In Jersey I even saw a row of five houses, the 

 walls of which were made of corrugated iron, for 

 the sake of cheapness. Of course, the owner 

 himself was not over-sanguine about his houses. 

 " They are too cold in winter and too hot in 

 summer." But although the five houses cover 

 only less than one-fifth of an acre, 2,000 Ib. of 

 green peas had already been sold as a first crop ; 

 and, in the first days of June, the second crop 

 (about 1,500 plants of tomatoes) was already in 

 good progress. 



It is always difficult, of course, to know what 

 are the money returns of the growers, first of all 



* Growing peas along the wall seems, however, to be a bad 

 system. It requires too much work in attaching the plants to 

 the wall. This system, however, excellent though it may be for 

 a provisory start for gardeners who have not much capital to 

 spend, is not profitable in the long run. The gardeners with 

 whom I spoke in 1903, after having made some money with 

 these light greenhouses, preferred to build more substantial ones, 

 which could be heated from January to March or April. 



