COMMERCIAL ASPECTS 85 



seedling daffodils much more must be paid. You can have, for 

 example, a bulb of a variety called Albatross, with its wing-spread 

 petals of snowy whiteness, for four pounds ; and Golden Bell, a 

 giant trumpet daffodil, for a guinea. A rich and stately golden 

 trumpet, sent out last year by Mr. Kendal, will cost you five or six 

 guineas a root ; and Monarch, another fine sort, is priced at twelve 

 guineas, as is also the rare and beautiful Eucharis lily-like flower 

 called Maggie May ; Una, an ivory white (without the lion), may 

 be had at two guineas, and a root of the big and beautiful Wear- 

 dale Perfection is worth nine guineas. Then, even if you purchase 

 all these, you are, so to speak, only in the second row, for there 

 are narcissi both rich and rare, such as Ellen Willmott, Peter 

 Barr, Robert Berkeley, Earl Russell, Countess Russell, Lady Mar- 

 garet Boscawen, and many others at present that no money can 

 buy, so proud of them are their raisers or owners. It is startling 

 to think what an acre, or even a pole or perch, of such kinds as 

 Maggie May, Ellen Willmott, or Peter Barr would be worth to a 

 successful cultivator. 'Ah, sure,' said a man of the sea to me one 

 fine day at Rush, 'these roots beat potato-growing; they beat 

 creation entirely ; and it's rowlin' in money you'd hev to be to touch 

 'em at all at all, they're so dear to buy.' Unconsciously, perhaps, 

 the nail had been struck on the head, and the reason there are not 

 more bulb-growers is twofold at least. Firstly, the best and most 

 suitable land is limited in area and difficult to secure, and then the 

 best and choicest stock bulbs are ' so dear to buy.' In a word, 

 although bulb-growing is undoubtedly one of the most pleasant 

 and profitable of all soil or land industries, it, at the same time, 

 demands capital, and a high order of systematic, industrial, and 

 commercial intelligence. It is not merely digging and planting, as 

 in the case of potatoes, for food. 



As regards the closing remarks in this extract, I am 

 inclined to think further experience in Ireland will show 

 that, while the main industry must remain in the hands 

 of large growers possessed of capital, there will be good 

 openings for even very small growers in the production 

 of the less costly varieties, which they can sell to the 

 large men, instead of trying to market for themselves, 

 thus supplementing their earnings in other directions 

 without running any personal risk, and at the same 

 time enabling the large men to work up a bigger trade 

 by collecting supplies from a variety of other sources. 

 A certain amount of instruction might have to be given, 

 and guidance exercised, in the production of the right 



