74 FLOWERS 



tendency in the Scilly Islands is to increase the output 

 of tomatoes (of which there were sent across 4,709 

 boxes, of about 14 pounds each, during 1905) rather 

 than that of flowers. Vigorous rivals have established 

 themselves on the mainland, and though the Scillies 

 still have an advantage in regard both to early season 

 and to quantities, the growers in Cornwall and Lincoln- 

 shire claim that they are producing better qualities, and 

 that their flowers reach the market in better condition, 

 because they undergo less handling. In Cornwall 

 spring flowers have long been cultivated, and, although 

 they are from ten to fourteen days later than those from 

 Scilly, their production on commercial lines is receiving 

 more and more attention. This is especially the case 

 on the cliffs lying between Penzance and Land's End, 

 where flower farms with a certain amount of glass to 

 hasten the earliest specimens have been set up in the 

 sheltered nooks and stretches on such a scale that one 

 grower alone sends off 50 boxes a day for a period 

 of three months. For six or seven weeks during the 

 height of the season the consignments of spring flowers 

 from Penzance amount to from 3 to 5 tons a day, 

 the quantities thus handled being double what they 

 were ten years ago. From Marazion Station during 

 this same period of six or seven weeks the total con- 

 signments range from i to 3 tons a day, smaller 

 quantities going throughout the summer and autumn 

 months. 



In Lincolnshire the business in cut flowers has been 

 taken in hand very seriously indeed, and, though it is 

 not being carried on throughout the county to anything 

 like the same extent as the production of potatoes 

 and fruit, it has already been developed much more 

 extensively than is generally known. In and around 

 Spalding, for example, there are now fully 300 acres 



