438 APPENDIX. 



on the Coast of Normandy, London, 1815, p. 77.) And 

 he added : " After making all allowance, the truth 

 must be told ; the grain crops are here foul, in some 

 instances execrably so." And when we consult the 

 modern writers, Ansted, Latham, and Nicolle, we 

 learn that the soil is by no means rich. It is decom- 

 posed granite, and easily cultivable, but " it contains 

 no organic matter besides what man has put into it." 



This is certainly the opinion anyone will come to 

 if he only visits thoroughly the island and looks atten- 

 tively to its soil to say nothing of the Quenvais 

 where, in Quayle's time, there was " an Arabian desert " 

 of sands and hillocks covering about seventy acres 

 (p. 24), with a little better but still very poor soil in 

 the north and west of it. The fertility of the soil 

 has entirely been made, first, by the vraic (sea- weeds), 

 upon which the inhabitants have maintained com- 

 munal rights ; later on, by considerable shipments of 

 manure, in addition to the manure of the very con- 

 siderable living stock which is kept in the island ; and 

 finally, by an admirably good cultivation of the soil. 



Much more than sunshine and good soil, it was the 

 conditions of land-tenure and the low taxation which 

 contributed to the remarkable development of agri- 

 culture in Jersey. First of all, the people of the Isles 

 know but little of the tax-collector. While the English 

 pay, in taxes, an average of 50s. per head of population ; 

 while the French peasant is over-burdened with taxes 

 of all imaginable descriptions; and the Milanese peasant 

 has to give to the Treasury full 30 per cent, of his income 

 all taxes paid in the Channel Islands amount to but 

 10s. per head in the town parishes and to much less than 

 that in the country parishes. Besides, of indirect taxes, 

 none are known but the 2s. 6d. paid for each gallon of 

 imported spirits and 9d. per gallon of imported wine. 



