This is certainly the opinion anyone will come to if he only visits thoroughly the island and looks attentively to its soil—to say nothing of the Quenvais where, in Quayle’s time, there was “an Arabian desert” of sands and hillocks covering about seventy acres (p. 24), with a little better but still very poor soil in the north and west of it. The fertility of the soil has entirely been made, first, by the vraic (sea-weeds), upon which the inhabitants have maintained communal rights; later on, by considerable shipments of manure, in addition to the manure of the very considerable living stock which is kept in the island; and finally, by an admirably good cultivation of the soil.

Much more than sunshine and good soil, it was the conditions of land-tenure and the low taxation which contributed to the remarkable development of agriculture in Jersey. First of all, the people of the Isles know but little of the tax-collector. While the English pay, in taxes, an average of 50s. per head of population; while the French peasant is over-burdened with taxes of all imaginable descriptions; and the Milanese peasant has to give to the Treasury full 30 per cent. of his income—all taxes paid in the Channel Islands amount to but 10s. per head in the town parishes and to much less than that in the country parishes. Besides, of indirect taxes, none are known but the 2s. 6d. paid for each gallon of imported spirits and 9d. per gallon of imported wine.

As to the conditions of land-tenure, the inhabitants have happily escaped the action of Roman Law, and they continue to live under the coutumier de Normandie (the old Norman common law). Accordingly, more than one-half of the territory is owned by those who themselves till the soil; there is no landlord to watch the crops and to raise the rent before the farmer has ripened the fruit of his improvements; there is nobody to charge so much for each cart-load of sea-weeds or sand taken to the fields; everyone takes the amount he likes, provided he cuts the weeds at a certain season of the year, and digs out the sand at a distance of sixty yards from the high-water mark. Those who buy land for cultivation can do so without becoming enslaved to the money-lender. One-fourth part only of the permanent rent which the purchaser undertakes to pay is capitalised and has to be paid down on purchase (often less than that), the remainder being a perpetual rent in wheat which is valued in Jersey at fifty to fifty-four sous de France per cabot. To seize property for debt is accompanied with such difficulties that it is seldom resorted to (Quayle’s General View, pp. 41-46). Conveyances of land are simply acknowledged by both parties on oath, and cost nearly nothing. And the laws of inheritance are such as to preserve the homestead, notwithstanding the debts that the father may have run into (ibid., pp. 35-41).

After having shown how small are the farms in the islands (from twenty to five acres, and very many less than that)—there being “less than 100 farms in either island that exceed twenty-five acres; and of these only about half a dozen in Jersey exceed fifty acres”—Messrs. Ansted, Latham, and Nicolle remark:—

“In no place do we find so happy and so contented a country as in the Channel Islands....” “The system of land-tenure has also contributed in no small degree to their prosperity....” “The purchaser becomes the absolute owner of the property, and his position cannot be touched so long as the interest of these [wheat] rents be paid. He cannot be compelled, as in the case of mortgage, to refund the principal. The advantages of such a system are too patent to need any further allusion.” (The Channel Islands, third edition, revised by E. Toulmin Nicolle, p. 401; see also p. 443.)

The following will better show how the cultivable area is utilised in Jersey (The Evening Post Royal Almanack):—

1894.
Acres.		1911.
Acres.
Corn crops{Wheat1,709656
{Barley and bere113125
{Oats and rye4991,213
{Beans and peas1634
Green crops{Potatoes7,0078,911
{Turnips and swedes11161
{Mangolds232137
{Other green crops447176
Clover, sainfoin and grasses under rotation}For hay2,8422,720
}Not for hay2,2081,731
Permanent pasture or grass{For hay1,117944
{Not for hay3,0572,522
Bare fallow—53
Fruit{Small fruit—99
{Orchards and small fruit—1,151
Other crops—240
——————
21,25220,733
Living Stock.
1894. 1911.
Horses used solely for agriculture2,2522,188
Unbroken horses8369
Mares solely for breeding16—
————
Horses2,3512,257
Cows and heifers in milk or in calf6,7096,710
Other cattle:—
Two years or more864}5,321
One year to two years2,252}
Less than one year2,549}
——————
Total cattle12,37412,031
Sheep, all ages332186
Pigs, including sows for breeding6,0214,639
Exports.
1887.1888.1889.
Bulls10210092
Cows and heifers1,3951,6391,629

Potatoes exported:—