OF AGRICULTURE. 229 



works of Mr. Thomas Smith, the manager of 

 the farm, practical manuals teaching the 

 would-be gardener the essentials of " French 

 Gardening." * 



A French maraicher having been invited 

 for this purpose, and 2,500 glass-bells, 1,000 

 lights for frames, a windmill pump, etc., having 

 been bought at a considerable cost, the work 

 of the French gardener on two acres of land 

 was carefully followed by the manager of the 

 farm, Mr. T. Smith, day by day, to be afterwards 

 described and illustrated by photographs for 

 the use of those who would like to try their 

 hand at the same work. 



Most of my readers will probably ask first of 

 all : What were the money results of this ven- 

 ture ? But it would have been foolish to expect 

 that in this first experiment everything should 

 have run as smoothly as it runs, let us say, in 

 the Channel Islands, where the many years' 

 practice of a whole population has worked out 

 the best methods of culture. 



Thus the frames were not ready in time 

 for giving an early crop of melons ; and al- 

 though the melons grown at Mayland were 



* Thomas Smith, French Oardening, London (Utopia Press), 

 19p9, 128 pp. ; The Profitable Culture of Vegetables, for Market 

 Gardeners, Small Holders, and Others, London (Longmans, 

 Green), 1911, 452 pp. ; and a short summing up of the first 

 of these works. 



