The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-03

The Guernsey Advertiser, (Eng.)-
Before taking up his work on the
fourteen acres at Grantham the tenant
of the Daily Mail farm, we read, is in
specting several of the more remark
able small farms in England. Recent
| " he saw on a tiny plot at That
cham, in Berkshire, an object-lesson in
close cultivation which astounded him.
Nobody will believe you if you write
it down." he said, but the figures quot
ed and the figures we shall give are
well below the higher achievements in
this wonderful system OF cultivation.
The two women who on very small
capital started this farm and this ex-
pertinent in Berkshire took five acres
of land. This five acres is now found
to be too much. for this reason. that
they can find full work for themselves,
for their students, for a French garden
er and his family, and enough profit for
all, on less than half the ground.
Farmers have written to US saying that
you cannot expect a bigger turnover
than eS an acre. The French garden
er, his brother and his contemporaries
have for many years near Paris sold
$500 worth of produce off an acre; and
the possibility is now being demon
strated at Thatcham.
In bare plowed field stands square
palisade of zinc plates. enclosing about
three-quarters of an acre. Behind it
the French gardener has wrought what
looks a sheer miracle to anyone unac-
quainted with the system. The ground
is all covered either with bell-glasses
inverted, known as cloches, or with
low frames. Under each bell were five
lettuces; lettuces were growing round
the bells, and other vegetables sown
broadcast were coming up everywhere.
In many of the frames-4ft. square
were thirty lettuces. a mass of carrots,
and caulifiowers. The heat within the
frames. while it was showing. was up
to so degrees, a heat one would have
difficulty in maintaining in a highly
heated and elaborate greenhouse.
Within half an acre were more vege-
tables and fruits, including melons,
which are one of the most paying crops,
than good gardener would get into
six or eight acres. Though the garden
was only started in November, brisk
sales of produce in markets as far off
as Birmingham are beginning; and the
whole square is a hive of industry. |
The place is being basieged by intend |
ing Stockholders in the vicinity, and |
already is stimulating imitation.
What is the secret possessed by this
how he would defy our climate while |
with his thumb he grooved lump of |
putty along the edge of a glass light? /
The secret is in the cropping and the
soil. Every inch of that ground bears |
at least three crops a year, each of |
them anticipating the season. 1t bears |
lettuces and radishes, for the New Year |
and through the spring, then carrots |
and caulifiowers, early tomatoes, and |
great numbers of melons by the end of |
May.
The soil will do all this If it is prop |
erly made. 1t is wholly a question of !
economy of space and IL rich close in
tensive culture. The secret-in the !
shortest phrase-is stable manure. glass i
and French industry. The French gar /
deners regard their soil as gold dust, |
so valuable is it that in every agree |
ment between gardener and landowner
1t is laid down that the outgoing tenant /
may carry away with him his soil to |
the depth of eighteen inches. That |
eighteen inches of soil is capital that /
may bear interest at 100 per cent. up |
wards. The ground is so precious that |
they do not allow space for a wheel /
barrow path, but carry their loads, and