182 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



with the glass-house system now in vogue they are matured 

 much earlier. Previous to the inroads of the potato disease, 

 which greatly affected the crops, it was no uncommon thing 

 to have a yield of twenty tons to the acre, and the average 

 was fourteen; but it has now dropped to ten or eleven. So 

 great is the demand for these potatoes that few are retained 

 for home use, and large quantities are imported from France 

 into Jersey for consumption; but, owing to the early crop 

 being exported at a very high price, and the French potatoes 

 purchased when the price is lowest, the balance of profit 

 remains very largely in favor of the island. 



Some idea of the fertility of the soil may be formed from 

 the following figures: Hay averages three and one-half tons 

 to the acre; a good return of one-year-old clover is over four 

 tons, of two-year-old not more than three and one-quarter; 

 wheat averages thirty-five bushels, though in some favored 

 fields the yield has reached sixty; mangolds fifty tons, occa- 

 sionally reaching seventy; parsnips twenty-five to thirty; 

 and carrots thirty. Wheat is sown in January, and that 

 is followed by parsnips and potatoes; oats in February, and 

 mangolds in April. The rotation of crops is a five-year one, 

 namely, turnips, potatoes, wheat, hay, hay. The grass is 

 top-dressed in January or February with sea-weed, and that 

 is followed later in the season by an application of liquid 

 manure. Everything is turned to getting the most possible 

 out of the land; and a recent writer, with just a touch of 

 sarcasm, remarks: "Jersey still remains a land of open- 

 field culture, and yet its inhabitants, who happily have not 

 known the blessings of Roman law and landlordism, and 

 still live under the common law of Normandy, obtain from 

 their land twice as much as the best farmers of England. 



