Rambles among the Channel Islands / by a Naturalist.

Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rambles among the Channel Islands / by a Naturalist. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    by the older members of the community. Still there are some things, even in the every-day occurrences of life, which strike a visitor as strange, and of these the manner in which the land is laid out and cultivated is among the first that attracts attention. To a person accustomed to the broad fields of England and the culture of one particular cereal or root on a large scale, the small inclosures of the Channel Islands, each containing perhaps three or four different crops, appear like mere patches of garden- ground. The universal practice of tethering the cattle, instead of allowing them to roam at large in the meadows, is another peculiarity, but this, as well as the careful culture of the land, is prompted by a spirit of economy Avhich strives to make the m.ost of every available inch of ground, and is rendered necessary by the large population, which is calculated to be above a thousand persons to every square mile. Nature has given to the Channel Islands a mild climate, a fertile soil, and an inexhaus- tible supply of manure in the sea-weed which covers their rock-bound coasts. Another agricultural custom is the deep ploughing for the parsnip crop, or, as it is called, “ la grande charrue. For the successful culture of this valuable root, it is found necessary to turn up the earth to a considerable depth, and B B