adoxical, because it is generally believed that vines
grow of themselves in the south of Europe, and that the vine-grower's
work costs nothing. But gardeners and horticulturists, far from
contradicting us, confirm our assertions. "The most advantageous culture
in England is vine culture," wrote a practical gardener, editor of the
"English Journal of Horticulture" in the _Nineteenth Century_. Prices
speak eloquently for themselves, as we know.

Translating these facts into communist language, we may assert that the
man or woman who takes twenty hours a year from his leisure time to give
some little care--very pleasant in the main--to two or three vine-stalks
sheltered by simple glass under any European climate, will gather as
many grapes as their family and friends can eat. And that applies not
only to vines, but to all fruit trees.

The Commune that will put the processes of intensive culture into
practice on a large scale will have all possible vegetables, indigenous
or exotic, and all desirable fruits, without employing more than about
ten hours a year per inhabitant.

In fact, nothing would be easier than to verify the above statements by
direct experiment. Suppose 100 acres of a light loam (such as we have at
Worthing) are transformed into a number of market gardens, each one with
its glass houses for the rearing of the seedlings and young plants.
Suppose also that fifty more acres are covered with glass houses, and
the organization of the whole is left to practical experienced French
_maraichers_, and Guernsey or Worthing greenhouse gardeners.

In basing the maintenance of these 150 acres on the Jersey average,
requiring the work of three men per acre under glass--which makes less
than 8,600 hours of work a year--it would need about 1,300,000 hours for
the 150 acres. Fifty competent gardeners could give five hours a day to
this work, and the rest would be simply done by people who, without
being gardeners by profession, would soon learn how to use a spade, and
to handle the plants. But this work would yield at least--we have seen
it in a preceding chapter--all necessaries and articles of luxury in the
way of fruit and vegetables for at least 40,000 or 50,000 people. Let us
admit that among this number there are 13,500 adults, willing to work at
the kitchen garden; then, each one would have to give 100 hours a year
distributed over the whole year. These hours of work would become hours
of recreation spent among f