CROPS, METHODS, MANAGEMENT 41 



were saved and sold. If no frost had come the cost 

 incurred would have been a small deduction from the 

 gross receipts ; but the risk of loss without such aid was 

 a great matter, and proved in the first case very serious 

 to the growers affected. 



One matter in connection with cultivation under glass 

 requires attention, and that is the provision of adequate 

 and suitable water-supplies. On a small place it is 

 not a serious affair, but upon a large one it assumes 

 rather alarming proportions. Thus Mr Peter Kay of 

 the Claigmar Vineyard, Finchley, has adopted a plan 

 by which he estimates that some £600 per annum is 

 saved. By the construction of reservoirs and pumping 

 apparatus, the rain is systematically stored and utilised. 

 The average rainfall at Finchley is about 25 inches a 

 year, which is equivalent to 562,500 gallons per acre; 

 and as the glass-houses cover 34 acres of land, the total 

 amount of rain falling upon that area would be some- 

 thing like 19 million gallons per annum. The reservoir 

 is constructed to hold one-fourth of this, namely five 

 million gallons, or the three months' average. Mr Kay 

 gave the particulars of his experiment before the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, September 25, 1900, and the 

 paper appeared in that Society's Journal. That much 

 water is wasted through insufficient provision for storing 

 the rain is an unquestionable fact, and it applies to many 

 places where the water-supply is very unsatisfactory ; 

 yet if it were only remembered that an inch of rain 

 means about 22,500 gallons per acre, some method of 

 catching and storing this valuable supply would be de- 

 vised wherever there are many buildings or glass-houses 

 and quantities of water are in demand. In the absence 

 of sufficient roof space it has been suggested that a 

 definite area of land should be covered or cemented and 

 the rain conducted into pipes and tanks. Any waste or 

 sterile portion of land could be used for such a purpose ; 



