366 Glimjjses of Farming in the Channel Islands. 
of agriculture and fruit-gi'OTving ; a persistent quest for in- 
formation from all sorts and conditions of men met in my 
■wanderings ; and a careful study of official reports, books, and 
essays relating to my subject : these are the grounds upon which 
I venture to offer a few observations on the present condition 
of farming in those Isles of the Blest, which lie so close to 
France, and yet, happily, form part of the British Empire. 
The present condition of any industiy may be realised most 
clearly as a mental picture by comparison with the past con- 
dition of that industry ; and, fortunately, I have no need to go 
beyond the volumes of the ' Journal ' for an excellent account of 
the state of farming in the Channel Islands twenty-nine years 
ago. It was in 1859 that the prize essay written by Mr. (now 
Colonel) C. P. Le Cornu, a native of and resident in Jersey, 
appeared in this periodical (Vol. XX., Part I., First Series), and 
it will be interesting to note some of the most striking of the 
changes which have taken place since that period. As there 
are great differences in the systems of farming pursued in the 
several islands, it will be best to deal with each separately. 
Jersey. 
Although by far the largest of the islands, Jersey has an 
area of about 02 square miles only, the extreme length from 
east to west being 12 miles, and the greatest breadth about 7 
miles. The total area is given in the Agi'icultural Keturns as 
28,717 acres, of which 20,501 acres were returned in 1887 as 
under crops, bare fallow, and grass. A foot-note, however, 
explains that some of the land is returned twice when two 
crops are grown on it in the same year ; while, on the other 
hand, another note states that the acreage of woodlands is not 
ascertained. The corresponding cultivated area in 1859 is not 
given in the prize essay, but appears in the first complete 
collection of Agi'icultural Returns, in 1807, as 20,357 acres, or 
only about 200 acres less than in 1887. It cannot be supposed 
that the double return of acreage is made at all commonly, for, 
if it were, the cultivated area would come out much larger than 
it does ; the growth of two crops in the same year on the arable 
land being the rule rather than the exception. According to a 
return of the acreage occupied by owners and t- nants respec- 
tively, there were 19.020 acres of occupied land in 1887. 
From causes which I have not seen expiaiui d, rlie population 
of Jersey has diminished since 1851, when it was 57,020 ; the 
number returned at the census of 1881 having been 52,445. 
l^etween 1871 and 1881 there appears to have been a decrease 
