Advantages in Agricultural Production. 261 
Islands, and yet those portions of the United Kingdom have 
attained a degree of success not exceeded, if equalled, in any 
other part of the world in this respect, as far as the supply of 
European countries is concerned. In raising new potatoes out 
of doors there are only a few districts in England as well 
suited in respect of climate and soil together as Jersey is ; but in 
that island, and still more in Guernsey, the earliest potatoes, as 
well as other vegetables and fruit, are produced under glass. 
Owing to the mildness of the climate and the abundance of sun- 
shine, a good deal can be done without artificial heat, and in 
this respect the Channel Islands are better placed than England 
is. But glass and coal, as well as labour, are cheaper here than 
in Jersey or Guernsey, where a great deal is done in hothouse 
culture. In this, then, as well as in the great enterprise shown 
in the production of early potatoes, success in the little islands 
is largely due to that “ infinite capacity for taking trouble,” 
which is certainly the genius of business. The growth of toma- 
toes and grapes under glass in this country has been extending 
rapidly for some years past, with great success to those who 
have engaged in the industry, and there is no reason why the 
other early produce which will stand heat, grown in the 
Channel Islands, should not be grown here also. 
As an example of the neglect of natural and artificial 
advantages, it would be difficult to beat the case of the South of 
Ireland, a tract of country admirably suited to the production 
of early vegetables, and within easy reach of good markets by 
means of cheap transport by sea. 
Differences in England. 
Within the bounds of England there are great differences in 
the natural and artificial advantages of agricultural (including 
horticultural) production. This fact is too commonly ignored by 
advocates of small holdings. Now, holdings of twenty acres or 
less are successful only, as a rule, when devoted to the produc- 
tion of milk, cheese, culinary vegetables, or fruit. Taking 
them in this order, it may safely be asserted that a small dairy 
holding pays well generally only where there is a good sale for 
milk, or where the land is well suited to the production of first- 
class cheese. Butter-making may pay where there is a retail 
sale for it in a large town ; but the disadvantages of this industry 
on a small scale are well known, and there are very few small 
dairy farmers who can turn out butter of good quality regularly. 
A twenty-acre dairy farmer cannot make a good living for a 
family by butter, as a rule, if he has to sell it wholesale, or has 
