IMPORTS AND EXPORTS AFFECTING BRITISH HORTICULTURE. 185 



The Imports of Fresh Flowers. 



The imports of fresh flowers continue to show a satisfactory decrease. 

 In 1902 we received flowers to the value of £'267,281 ; in 1903 the 

 amount fell to £248,689 ; in 1904 to £242,454 ; and last year, 1905, it 

 was only £202,217 ; but now that forcing is better understood, why should 

 not this £200,000, or at any rate the greater part, be spent in England ? 



Surely it would not be difficult with proper management to produce 

 azaleas, roses, or other spring flowers which may be seen at our early 

 Shows at a price and in sufficient quantities to compete successfully with 

 foreign importations. 



With regard to the acreage under the cultivation of vegetables, the 

 Board of Agriculture report as follows (we would remind our readers 

 that the " vegetables " include those used for cattle-feeding) : — 



Of beans there is also an increased acreage, confined to England, both 

 Scotland and Wales exhibiting a decline. The changes, as compared with 1904, 

 are very varied in different counties ; of the five chief bean-growing counties 

 (with over 10,000 acres each), Cambridge, Lincoln, and Norfolk have decreases 

 of from 1.000 to 2,000 acres, and Suffolk declines by over 400 acres ; Essex, on 

 the other hand, shows an increase of over 2,000 acres. The addition of 1,000 

 acres in the East Eiding also represents a large increase. Peas, on the other 

 hand, record a small decrease in England, and show an infinitesimal increase 

 upon the small acreages in Scotland and Wales. As with beans, Essex shows 

 the largest increase ; but Lincoln, the chief pea-growing county, has a deficiency 

 of over 4,000 acres. 



Potatoes, with 608,473 acres, cover more land by 38,264 acres, or 6'7 percent., 

 than last year, and for the first time since 1871, when 627,691 acres were returned, 

 over 600.000 acres have been planted with this crop in Great Britain. The increase 

 over 1904 has been, relatively, somewhat greater in England than in Scotland, 

 while in Wales there has been a slight decline. Cornwall and Devon also show a 

 slight falling off, all other English counties reporting increases, which are most 

 considerable in Lincoln, Lancaster, Chester, the West Riding and Cambridge in 

 England, and- in Forfar and Fife in Scotland. The extension during late years 

 of potato-growing is a feature of English farming only, the total in Scotland being 

 only now restored to that which it was before 1890, while the Welsh area has 

 exhibited an almost continual decline since 1888. 



The chief root crop, turnips and swedes, shows a decline of nearly 1 per 

 cent., bringing the acreage down to 1,589,000 acres. Before 1887 the turnip 

 crop of Great Britain stood at over 2,000,000 acres, and the shrinkage is most 

 notable in England, where a 25 per cent, fall is recorded from that date as 

 compared with one of 5 per cent, in Scotland. In the present year several 

 counties record small augmentations, but these were insufficient to counter- 

 balance losses of over 2,000 acres in Devon and of over 1,000 acres in Dorset, 

 Salop, and Aberdeen, while a diminution of nearly that amount was noted in 

 Fife and Forfar. 



Mangolds, on the other hand, have slightly improved their position, the total 

 area again exceeding 400.000 acres. The increase was entirely in England, and 

 was most noticeable in Essex and Norfolk. 



Cabbage shows a material increase, amounting to almost 5 per cent. It is 

 most noticeable in the south-west, particularly Devon, and one or two collectors 

 in that quarter mention an increasing tendency to substitute cabbage for roots as 

 food for stock. The relatively small area under kohl-rabi exhibits an even 

 larger increase, viz. 12 7 per cent., nearly a fourth of the whole augmentation 

 occurring in Essex, where there are over 3,500 acres under this crop. Rape, on 

 the contrary, shows a loss of 3,891 acres, or 4 per cent., the decline being very 

 marked in Lincoln ; while vetches or tares display a considerable increase 



