APPENDIX. 443 



supplying pilots became a decaying source of income, 

 the Scillonians took to the growing of potatoes. For 

 many years, we are told by Mr. J. G. Uren (Stilly and 

 the $cillonian$, Plymouth, 1907), this was a very 

 profitable industry. The crop was ready at least a 

 month in advance of any other source of supply on 

 the mainland. Every year about 1,000 tons of potatoes 

 were exported. " In its palmy days the potato harvest 

 in Scilly was the great event of the year. Gangs of 

 diggers were brought across from the mainland," and 

 the prices went occasionally up to 28 a ton for the 

 earliest potatoes. Gradually, however, the export of 

 potatoes was reduced to less than one-half of what it 

 was formerly. Then the inhabitants of the islands 

 went for fishing, and later on they began to grow 

 flowers. Frost and snow being practically unknown in 

 the islands, this new industry succeeded very well. The 

 arable area of the islands is about 4,000 acres, which 

 are divided into small farms, less than from fifteen 

 to twenty acres, and these farms are transmitted, 

 according to the local custom, from father to son. 



It is not long ago that they began to grow wild nar- 

 cissuses, to which they soon added daffodils (a hundred 

 varieties), and lilies, especially arum-lilies, for Church 

 decoration. All these are grown in narrow strips, 

 sheltered from the winds by dwarf hedges. Movable 

 glass-houses are resorted to shelter the flowers for a 

 certain time, and in this way the gardeners have a 

 succession of crops, beginning soon after Christmas, 

 and lasting until April or May. 



The flowers are shipped to Penzance, and thence 

 carried by rail in special carriages. At the top of the 

 season thirty to forty tons are shipped in a single 

 day. The total exports, which were only 100 tons in 

 1887, have now reached 1,000 in 1907. 



