£l000 AN ACRE

Hokitika Guardian, 26 June 1920, Page 4

£looo AN ACRE

AjMD HOW TO GET IT.

By Sir William Beach Thomas. [n variou s parts of the world are small plots of land treated as intensive factories, producing crops long before* the natural date, and never, or for a very short period, lying idle. If is a plain fact that tlOOfl an aero can he thus produced. The Valley .of (Hass in Guernsey is one of theso land factories. Low-lying garden s round Baris and on the island at Rouen reach as wonderful a result by rather different moans. Acre upon acre round the Hague and Delft are cropped so close that 3 and 4 crops grow togother first in frames’ then in the open air; and these last are now sending masses of early vegetables to England. French gardcn 8 are scattered about England, in Canterbury, near Tonbridge, at Burhill, near Chichester, at Thatclmm, and in Evesham, and arc doing well. Rather different systems prevail in theso different places, and gardeners—the French call them “maraicliers” — develop their own variations. Perhaps the most undoubted genius of them all M. Le Coq, who came to England from Paris .10 year s ago, has varied most of (he original, and found the sort that l est suits England. It is a liberal education to see him. He works all day and every day from sheer love of the art. All he insists on as recreation in his present garden is the sowing of five or six clumps of sweet peas just in front of a rough seat where lie can Occasionally sit and smoke a pipe while he inhales the color and scent. The art consists first in manufacturing “golden soil” out of just the right proportion of new manure, first for the hot frames and later for the open garden ; and when the garden is established an immense proportion of the soil is lmmas—that is, vegetable matter. The plant is near the glass, and the Dutch are very particular to have large panes

In most varieties several crops—often lettuce, carrot, and cauliflower —arc sown together, one maturing quicker than the other. Others are content with quick successions and ingenious arrangements whereby some' standard crop is always being plucked; first radishes and lettuces, then tomatoes, then celery, then mushrooms, sometimes melons and cucumbers and marrows.

The prime virtue may be said to be speed. Vegethables are good to eat in. exact proportion to the rapidity of growth. The faster they grow the softer and more luscious they are. This speed is attained by glass and by a forcing soil. The glass may be a frame, may be what we call a greenhouse, may be a bell jar or cloche—anything that let s in all the light and keeps out the cold.

Mushroom-growing in darkness is, of course, an art by itself, but it is associated with very many “French gardens,” partly for the sake of the soil it creates. Continuous work and the minutest attention to detail do the rest of he miracle.