24 MAY 1930, Page 15

The locus classicus for the discussion of extensive and intensive

cuftivation is Prince Kropotkin's Fiekls, Factories and Workshops. Since he wrote, partly in order to demonstrate that a very small area of land could support a very large population, intensive facilities have immensely increased. Glass is more easily manufactured: Artificial heat is more easily and cheaply supplied. Science has discovered the cure for many of the diseases that affect much= used soils. The glass-house gardeners both sterilize the comparatively small amount of soil needed for starting their plants, and at two year • intervals treat the whole ex- panse with sufficient heat to kill fungus and insect pests. The worker in- the English glass-house does not undergo the drudgery that Kropotkin noted in the French gardener, who produced some £600 an acre by frames and cloches and manurial heat. The glass age may be just beginning.

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