The excellent state of agriculture in Jersey and Guernsey has often been mentioned in the agricultural and general literature of this country, so I need only refer to the works of Mr. W. E. Bear (_Journal of the Agricultural Society_, 1888; _Quarterly Review_, 1888; _British Farmer_, etc.) and to the exhaustive work of D. H. Ansted and R. G. Latham, _The Channel Islands_, third edition, revised by E. Toulmin Nicolle, London (Allen), 1893. Many English writers--certainly not those just named--are inclined to explain the successes obtained in Jersey by the wonderful climate of the islands and the fertility of the soil. As to climate, it is certainly true that the yearly record of sunshine in Jersey is greater than in any English station. It reaches from 1,842 hours a year (1890) to 2,300 (1893), and thus exceeds the highest aggregate sunshine recorded in any English station by from 168 to 336 hours (exclusively high maximum in 1894) a year; May and August seeming to be the best favoured months.[201] But, to quote from the just mentioned work of Ansted and Latham:-- “There is, doubtless, in all the islands, and especially in Guernsey, _an absence of sun heat_ and of the direct action of the sun’s rays _in summer_, which must have its effect, and _a remarkable prevalence of cold, dry, east wind in late spring, retarding vegetation_” (p. 407). Everyone who has spent, be it only two or three weeks in late spring in Jersey, must know by experience how true this remark is. Moreover, there are the well-known Guernsey fogs, and “owing also to rain and damp the trees suffer from mildew and blight, as well as from various aphides.” The same authors remark that the nectarine does not succeed in Jersey in the open air “owing to the absence of autumn heat”; that “the wet autumns and cold summers do not agree with the apricot;” and so on. If Jersey potatoes are, on the average, three weeks in advance of those grown in Cornwall, the fact is fully explained by the continual improvements made in Jersey in view of obtaining, be it ever so small, quantities of potatoes a few days in advance, either by special care taken to plant them out as soon as possible, protecting them from the cold winds, or by choosing tiny pieces of land naturally protected or better exposed. The difference in price between the earliest and the later potatoes being immense, the greatest efforts are made to obtain an early crop. The decline of prices per ton is best seen from the following prices in 1910:-- Quantities Prices. Week ending exported. Tons. £ _s._ _d._