342 CORNISH MARKET GARDENING 



comes. On this favoured land two crops can be grown 

 in the year, the first of early potatoes harvested in 

 May, followed by broccoli harvested between Christmas 

 aud the latter part of February, and some of the fields 

 have carried these two crops year after year without 

 break for the past forty years. Few of the men engaged 

 in this business occupy very much land ; from five to 

 fifteen acres is the usual holding, but even such an area 

 requires considerable capital, for the rents are from 

 ,8 to 10 an acre, and the expenditure on manures 

 and labour is enormous. 



As the broccoli crop is cleared the preparation of 

 the land for potatoes begins ; the land is dressed 

 with seasand, which contains a good deal of broken 

 shell, and seaweed, of which as much as a hundred 

 loads to the acre may be applied. Sand and weed 

 are carted up from the beach whenever convenient. 

 There is no such allocation of particular stretches of 

 foreshore to particular farms as prevails in Guernsey, 

 but a certain number of men on the beach live by 

 drawing up the seaweed at low tide ready for the 

 gardeners' carts. The seasand is ploughed in, the 

 seaweed put in the drills with 10 cwt. or 12 cwt. 

 per acre of rich guano, and then towards the end 

 of February or early March the potatoes are planted. 

 Imported seed is always used, Scotch seed that has 

 grown one year in Lincolnshire being preferred, and 

 the seed is obtained in the autumn and sprouted 

 on boards that are stacked up in tiers in the adjacent 

 barns. The convenient boxes used elsewhere for sprout- 

 ing and carrying out the potatoes for planting are not 

 here employed. As the seed sprouts the tubers are cut 

 to a single eye, however small may be the piece 

 planted, for the growers prefer a single haulm, though 

 it is not worth while to set about rubbing out all the 



