Glimpses of Farming in the Channel Islands. 373 
labourers, who come to the island for the potato-harvest and 
save money, are anxious competitors for small farms, and will 
pay almost any rent for them. They may or may not be in a 
position to pay the small sum needed as a deposit on purchasing 
land ; but there is a more sei*ious difficulty in the way, for 
no foreigner can become possessed of land in Jersey until he 
has been naturalised as a British subject, and naturalisation is 
allowed only after several years' residence, and very charily even 
then. The authorities are not pleased at seeing the land more 
and more occupied by Frenchmen, and they are not at all dis- 
posed to facilitate the acquisition of rights of purchase by the 
foreigners. 
Every one must regret to see the fine race of Jersey farmers 
— men whose ancestors have held land in the island since long 
before the Norman Conquest — diminishing in number as they 
are. There is no doubt that rents have been forced up to an 
extravagant extent by the eager competition of Brittany peasants 
who have been trained in the art of living on next to nothing, 
and who can therefore maintain themselves and their families 
upon meagre profits which would not content Jerseymen. 
Under such circumstances, young Jerseymen who inherit land 
are tempted to let it, and to supplement the income which they 
thus obtain by engaging in commercial or other pursuits. Many 
of them shrink from the unremitting and arduous labour in 
which their parents have spent their lives, and which they have 
shared during their boyhood. 
It may be suggested that those of them who own moderately- 
large farms, or what are deemed such in Jersey, might farm the 
land without working constantly upon it; but the universal 
testimony in the island is that this would not do, as it is only 
by working with the few men he employs that the Jersey farmer 
can thrive. Many English farmers have bought or hired land 
in the island, and attempted to farm it after the English easy- 
going fashion ; but not one has succeeded. The only English- 
man who has been successful as a farmer in Jersey, I was 
assured, is Mr. John Gaunt, of St. Saviour's, who came to the 
island for his health many years ago, after having been success- 
fully engaged in commerce in England. But Mr. Gaunt has 
succeeded by doing as the Jersey farmers do. On the occasion 
of my last visit to him he had been to St. Heliers, nearly four 
miles distant, with one cartload of potatoes to be shipped, and 
was getting ready for a second journey. He is over seventy, 
and a rich man without family ; yet he declares that when he 
gives up work he will give up farming. 
It must not be supposed, however, that there is anything 
