[96] Most interesting experiments for obtaining new sorts of wheat, combining the qualities of Canadian wheat with those of the best British sorts, are being carried on now at the Cambridge University. Similar experiments have been made in Germany by F. von Lochow, at Petkno, in order to produce new races of rye rich in gluten and prolific. These last experiments were made on Mr. Hallett’s method, and the results were satisfactory, as it appears from a report published in Fuehling’s _Landwirthschaftliche Zeitung_, Leipzig, January and February, 1900, pp. 29 and 45. [97] See Appendix N. CHAPTER V. THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE--(_continued_). Extension of market-gardening and fruit growing: in France; in the United States--Culture under glass--Kitchen gardens under glass--Hothouse culture: in Guernsey and Jersey: in Belgium--Conclusion. One of the most interesting features of the present evolution of agriculture is the extension lately taken by intensive market-gardening of the same sort as has been described in the third chapter. What formerly was limited to a few hundreds of small gardens, is now spreading with an astonishing rapidity. In this country the area given to market-gardens, after having more than doubled within the years 1879 to 1894, when it attained 88,210 acres, has continued steadily to increase.[98] But it is especially in France, Belgium, and America that this branch of culture has lately taken a great development. (See Appendix P.) At the present time no less than 1,075,000 acres are given in France to market-gardening and intensive fruit culture, and a few years ago it was estimated that the _average_ yield of every acre given to these cultures attains £33, 10s.[99] Their character, as well as the amount of skill displayed in, and labour given to, these cultures, will best appear from the following illustrations. About Roscoff, which is a great centre in Brittany for the export to England of such potatoes as will keep till late in summer, and of all sorts of vegetables, a territory, twenty-six miles in diameter, is entirely given to these cultures, and the rents attain and exceed £5 per acre. Nearly 300 steamers call at Roscoff to ship potatoes, onions and other vegetables to London and different English ports, as far north as Newcastle. Moreover, as much as 4,000 tons of vegetables are sent every year to Paris.[100] And although the Roscoff peninsula enjoys a specially warm climate, small stone walls are erected everywhere, and rushes are grown on their tops in order to give still more protection and heat to the vegetables.[101] The climate is improved as well as the soil.