892 Glimpses of Farming in the Channel Islands. 
six vergees (not quite two and a half acres) of land. In one of 
these, 108 feet long and 36 feet wide, he had a splendid 
crop of tomatoes, which some one had offered to take at the 
market price of three tons of fruit. A good many of the 
tomatoes were ripe, and they were selling in the last week of 
June at lOd. to Is. a pound in London, I believe. The 
average value of the whole crop might very safely be put at 
601. a ton, as it was an early crop, and the fruit was very fine : 
so that the gross returns for the produce of a second crop 
(following potatoes) in this one house would be at least 1801. 
Probably the total was a good deal more than that amount ; but 
the crop was an extraordinary one, and there is the cost of 
freight and commission to come off. Mr. Robin grows his 
plants in rows 2 feet 9 inches apart, and 18 inches from plant 
to plant, in the rows. As an instance of making the most of 
the land outside the green-houses, I may mention that I noticed 
a plot on which parsnips and carrots had been sown with 
radishes. The last were first taken up, and the carrots were 
ready to be taken up when I was there, leaving the parsnips. 
Rents in the Vale, a famous fruit-growing district, are from 
21. 10s. to SI. per vergee, or 61. 5s. to 71. 10s. per aero, for 
holdings of fair size, and up to 81. per acre for small, and even 
91. for very small pieces of land. 
Another Vale farmer, Mr. Bisson, grows melons and 
cucumbers, of course with heat, and grapes and tomatoes with 
and without heat. A few days before my visit, when potatoes 
were quoted at 2s. to 3s. per cahat at the outside, Mr. Bisson 
realised 6s. 8d. per cahot for some that he sent in small packages 
to Covent Garden ; but his tubers were full-sized and well 
grown. There is no doubt that many J ersey growers do them- 
selves harm by sending a lot of under-sized tubers mixed with 
the fair sized ones ; and as their regular custom is to put some 
of the biggest on the top of each barrel, buyers are apt to 
discount their produce by making a full allowance for what is 
expected to be found underneath. 
Four or five companies have recently been formed to grow, 
in St. Sampson's, near St. Peter Port, early vegetables and fruit 
for export, and all but one are supposed to be paying well. I 
visited three of these very interesting establishments, and greatly 
regret that space will not allow of a full description of what I 
saw in them and learned about the system on which they are 
worked. It may be pointed out that any one who intends to go 
in for glass-houses would do well to visit these establishments, 
in order not only to see how forced vegetables and fruit are 
grown for market, but also how, in two of them at least, gUsB- 
