THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1908. HOW TO MAKE SMALL FARMING PAY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9117, 17 June 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1908. HOW TO MAKE SMALL FARMING PAY.

Tha London "D.iily Mail" lias been publishing some fact 3 about intensive cultivation in France. It is a com-mon-place tnat in Franco by intensive- culture market gardeners often contrive to obtain £SOO worth of produce from an acre of land. The secret of success lies in raising the temperature of the soil by placing beneath the surface stratum n deep layer of manure and covering the beds with frames, which again are embedded in manure. By this means a temperature of 90 degrees has been maintained in January and the asperity of the British winter air soothed

aid tamed. The system ii not, as some might suppose, a mere plaything o" an experiment. It has been tried in Prance for many years, while in 1905 it wan introduced at Evesham upon a fairly large scale, with the result that, according to a local firm, the gross produce of an acre works out at £6OO to £7OO. The expenses, of course, are heavy, but, according to the same authority, there is a good margin of profit. Within the past year the system has been introduced at Thatcham. in Berkshire, by a French market gardener, M. Coq, says the "Mail." His intention is to produce fruit and vegetables out of season when they fetch a fabulous price. Lettuces, young carrot?, and melons are among the crops which he grows, but there is an almost infinite variety from which enterprising imitators can choose. When we

remember that during tiie season the export of new potatoes from the Breton ports reaelie- 1,000 lons per day, and that whole train loads of early French potatoes are made up at Southampton for London, we obtain some idea of the opportunities which await the enterprising English agriculturist. Though complaints of the British railways are common, the Paris gardener makes money, despite the fact that he pays quite twice the freight that the English small holder would have to face. Early asparagus is conveyed by fast trains from countries so far afield as Italy, and sold in London at 9s per bundle. The imports of early lettuce from Paris and Northern France reach hundreds of crates per day and fetch a high price. Yet there is really no reason why the asparagus and lettuce should not be grown upon British soil, or why the profit of their culture should not pass into British pockets. It is true that if the business were carried on upon a very large scale in England the price might somewhat decline, but there would still remain a good margin, as experience shows that with each fall in the price the market expands. No occupation is more healthful than that of the market gardener, and probably no one derives greater pleasure from his work when it can be made to pay. A man who displays such "prodigies of .labour, intelligence, and imagination" cannot be said to vegetate or merely to exist. The true art of life is to enjoy your work, and this he does.