The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1897-06-28
THE ISLAND or JERSEY.
Its Potatoes More to be Admired Than Its
Far Famed Cattle.

Its Potatoes More to be Admired Than Its
Far Famed Cattle.
Saint Heller, Jersey, Channel Islands,,
June 18th, 1897.
To the Editor of the Journal and Courier:
The guide books devote pages to the
books call them; lies Anglaises, as the
French guide books call them. You
will be told their singular history: in
formed as to their Anticipated civil gov
eminent; while the beauties of the is
lands and the particular attractions of
each will be spread out before you in
true guide book style. 1t is pity that
the old-fashioned sympathetic, poetic,
historic and critical style has passed
away from guide books and in its stead
there should rule a style that may well
be called the Geographic style, so spar
| ing of words it seems to be; so dry,
hard and laconic. Guide books now-a
days confine themselves to unattractive
facts and give them in as few words as
possible. There is no room between the
covers for the play of the imagination;
I for quotations from Byron's Childe
Harold, from Victor Hugo, or from Mrs,
Jamison. In the presence of work of
4 art the guide book should not only give
the facts of its history, but things
great, wise and learned men have said
about it. The traveller is entitled to
/ know, for instance, how Queen Victoria
was affected by the Apollo Belvidere
the first time she perceived his superb
masculine beauty. DID she blush or did
she open wide her eyes in innocent adj
of joint. The times are very hard and
cruel. Cash rules supreme Every
thing that does not bring immediate
cash is despised, unwritten, forgotten.
Yet these facts do not seem sufficient to
account for the utter guide book ignor-
ing of the Jersey potato. No one can
come to Jersey, especially at this season
of the year, without at once having his
attention attracted to the Jersey pota-
to-. 1t meets him at every turn. He
can't get away from it. A thousand
questions on the subject suggest them
selves to his enquiring mind. He turns
to his guide books for help. He turns
away in despair. There is not word
on the subject So he is compelled to
go about asking questions of every one
he meets. 1t takes him days to obtain
the information the guide book could
have given him in ten minutes.
The Jersey potato is the very best po-
tato in the world. 1t brings the very
highest price in all the capitals of Eu-
rope. Queen Vic. will eat no other ex-
cept when she is in Ireland, when for
political purposes she has to put up
with the far inferior Irish article.
There are two kinds of Jersey pota-
toes; the large and the small. The
small is very small, not much larger
she'll but of the most delicious flavor
imaginable. The small are enormously
| expensive. Only crowned heads and
American millionaires could afford to
have them every day. There are but
few places on the island where they can
be raised, and their culture requires as
much care as Vuelta Abajo tobacco or
the vines of Chateau LATTE, In the
hundreds and hundreds of wagonloads
of potatoes passing this hotel in one
continuous stream, there will not be a
dozen barrels of the small variety. But
the larger potato is so far superior to
the ordinary American article that no
comparison can be drawn between
them. Even the Bermuda potato sinks
into ignominious contempt To have
the potato in perfection, you must
have it here on the spot. Transporta-
ton does not affect it so disastrously as
it does Burgundy and Munich beer, but
it does injure the exquisite delicacy of
its perfect flavor and does jar the won
derful atomic character of it's struc-
tural consistency. And where do they
all come from? Ten steamers laden
to the gunwales left here last night
There are barrels on the wharf to laden
twenty more, and the store Is ever in
creasing. Within half mile of the
wharf are dozens of enormous packing
sheds where hundreds of Jerseymen
work day and night in relays packing
potatoes for shipping. The population
gathers about these sheds to witness
the strength, skill and rapidity dis
played in the packing The farmers
bring in their potatoes in strong uncsv-
cred baskets and barrels. To cover
them and to bind the whole together
| intn a cnmnact and elastic mass for