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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 6277, 13 October 1891, Page 2

Few people in England fully appreciate the extent to which that country is dependent on Jersey for early potatoes, nor the immense sum of money which that bright little i3land thereby realises. The trade (says an English contemporary) has been gradually increasing for many years, and the imports into England this season' have oxceeded in quantity and value those of any former year. Annexed are the certified returns for the last nine years:— Years Tons. Value. 1883 .. .. 34,468 £262,472 3 4 1884 .. .. 53,655 375,841 18 0 ISSS .. .. 48,524 319,464 3 4 1886 ~ .. 64,820 309,155 611 1887 .. .. 50,073 423,888 18 10 1888 .. .. 60,988 242,109 11 8 1889 .. .. 52,700 264,153 15 0 1890 .. .. 54,109 293,681 19 2 1891 .. .. 66,810 487,642 1 8 —The season lasts for 13 weeks, and this year the exportation began in the week ending May 9ih, when the price was £37 10s per ton. After the opening shipment prices rapidly fell, so that during the last week of the season they only fetched £5 per ton. In Ireland the " jintleman who pays the rint" is the pig; in Jersey it is the potato. The quantity produced is equal to 3| tons per acre for the -whole cultivated area of the island.