The large houses of one big company are built close to each
other, and have no partitions between. But this system cannot be
recommended. Altogether, when I revisited Guernsey in 1903, I saw
that the system of greenhouses which prevailed was that of long
two-roofed glass “tents,” placed by the side of each other, but
separated from each other by partitions preventing the circulation of
the air over the whole block. As to the extensive _cool_ greenhouses
on the Grande Maison estate, which are built by a company and are
rented to gardeners for so much the 100 feet, they are simply made of
thin deal board and glass. They are on the “lean to” or “one roof”
system, and the back wall, ten feet high, and the two side walls are
in simple grooved boards, standing upright. The whole is supported by
uprights inserted into concrete pillars. They are said to cost not
more than 5d. the square foot, of glass-covered ground. And yet, even
such plain and cheap houses yield excellent results. The potato crop
which had been grown in some of them was excellent, as also the green
peas.[113]
In Jersey I even saw a row of five houses, the walls of which were
made of corrugated iron, for the sake of cheapness. Of course, the
owner himself was not over-sanguine about his houses. “They are too
cold in winter and too hot in summer.” But although the five houses
cover only less than one-fifth of an acre, 2,000 lb. of green peas
had already been sold as a first crop; and, in the first days of
June, the second crop (about 1,500 plants of tomatoes) was already in
good progress.
It is always difficult, of course, to know what are the money returns
of the growers, first of all because Thorold Rogers’ complaint about
modern farmers keeping no accounts holds good, even for the best
gardening establishments, and next because when the returns are known
to me in all details, it would not be right for me to publish them.
“Don’t prove too much; beware of the landlord!” a practical gardener
once wrote to me. Roughly speaking, I can only confirm Mr. Bear’s
estimate to the effect that under proper management even a cool
greenhouse, which covers 4,050 square feet, can give a gross return
of £180.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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