[113] Growing peas along the wall seems, however, to be a bad system. It requires too much work in attaching the plants to the wall. This system, however, excellent though it may be for a provisory start for gardeners who have not much capital to spend, is not profitable in the long run. The gardeners with whom I spoke in 1903, after having made some money with these light greenhouses, preferred to build more substantial ones, which could be heated from January to March or April. [114] I take these figures from the notes which a Belgian professor of agriculture was kind enough to send me. The greenhouses in Belgium are mostly with iron frames. [115] A friend, who has studied practical horticulture in the Channel Islands, writes me of the vineries about Brussels: “You have no idea to what an extent it is done there. Bashford is nothing against it.” [116] A quotation which I took at random, in 1895, from a London daily, was: “Covent Garden, 19th March, 1895. Quotations: Belgian grapes, 4d. to 6d.; Jersey ditto, 6d. to 10d.; Muscats, 1s. 6d. to 2s.; and tomatoes, 3d. to 5d. per lb.” [117] See Appendix S. [118] Out of them, 27,000 acres are grown in the fruit orchards, between the apple and cherry tree, so that the total area under fruit orchards and small fruit was reckoned at 308,000 acres in 1908. [119] “Fruit and Flower Farming,” in _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 11th edition, article by J. Weathers. [120] _Rural England_, 2 vols., London (Longmans, Green), 1902, vol. ii., p. 57. [121] F. E. Green, _The Awakening of England_, London (Nelson’s), 1911, pp. 49, 50. Speaking of a certain farmer, Mr. Green says: “In the autumn of 1910, when I visited him, he was offered £100 an acre for his standing crops, and £100 _for the tenant rights_. He refused the offer. _His rent still stands at £2 an acre._” [122] According to the researches made by the French Ministry of Agriculture, the yearly produce of the French horticulturists attains the value of £16,000,000. [123] _Rural England_, ii., pp. 76, 212. Spalding, also in Lincolnshire, is another centre for the trade in spring flowers, as well as for intensive farming, co-operative small-holding having been introduced there by the Provident and Small-Holdings Club (same work, ii., pp. 238-240). More than 1,000 acres are now given to the growing of flowers--an industry which was introduced only fifteen years ago, when it came from Holland. On p. 242 of the same work the reader will find some interesting information about a new “mutualist” venture, the Lincoln Equitable Co-operative Society. [124] _Rural England_, ii., 59. [125] F. E. Green, _The Awakening of England_, pp. 116, 117.