Glimpses of Farming in the Channel Islands. 887 
The future of farming in Jersey is just now somewhat 
doubtful, its recent high standard of prosperity having depended 
to a very great extent upon the remunerativeness of the potato 
crop. Whether the pre-eminence in the growth of this crop 
which the island has long enjoyed will be maintained or not, 
cannot be stated with certainty. If not, and if consequently 
the enormous land prices and rents of Jersey should fall, there 
is still no reason to doubt that a country so favoured in respect 
of climate, and inhabited by as industrious and energetic a race 
of farmers as it has ever been my pleasure to meet with, will in 
one way or another continue to hold a foremost place in the 
agricultural world. 
Guernsey. 
The total area of land and water in Guernsey is about 16,000 
acres, of which about 10,000 acres, a slightly smaller proportion 
than in Jersey, are under cultivation. The climate is somewhat 
less genial than that of the larger island, frost in spring being 
less uncommon. But the chief drawback to Guernsey as com- 
pared with Jersey is that the " lay of the land " is quite different. 
Instead of sloping downwards towards the south, as Jersey does, 
Guernsey has the highest land on the south side, and the slope 
is toward the sea level on the north. This, more than any 
difference in soil — which is formed from rocks of the same 
characters as those of Jersey — renders the land somewhat less 
fertile than that of the sister island. Besides, Guernsey is not 
so well wooded as Jersey is, while the fences are more untidy, 
and the farming, apart from glass-houses, is less " intense." 
The difference in rents alone would suffice to show that less 
is got out of the land in Guernsey than in Jersey, as far as 
ordinary farms are concerned ; but this is chiefly because of the 
great returns of the potato crop in Jersey, and it by no means 
follows that the farmers who get the greatest returns secure the 
largest profits. The keen competition of Frenchmen who desire 
to rent land is scarcely at all felt in Guernsey, so that rents are 
not there, as they have become in Jersey, the margin of profit 
beyond the cost of the meagre subsistence which satisfies a 
Brittany peasant. 
Unfortunately, when we come to official statistics, we must 
reckon Guernsey with the smaller islands that make up its 
bailiwick. In 1887 there were in the Guernsey bailiwick 
1,553 occupiers owning the land they farmed, and 520 renters ; 
the former holding 6,601 acres, and the latter 5,172 acres. 
Thus in Guernsey and the smaller islands the occupying 
owners are more than three times as numerous as the tenants, 
c c 2 
