298 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
excellence with which they can now be grown in Great Britain and 
Ireland if the supply from abroad should ever again be cut off. 
The call to British industry for development in all possible direc- 
tions is of the most urgent importance at the present time. It will 
involve the utilization of every rod of available land, and it is 
devoutly to be hoped that in the near future, with the aid of science 
and deep mechanical cultivation, we shall see all suitable waste and 
vacant areas turned to economic advantage in a way hitherto little 
dreamt of. 
It is to the interest of everyone and of every class to make this 
country as productive- as possible, and especially in the produce from 
the land. Agriculture and Horticulture are the twin bases of a 
country's prosperity, and it behoves all whose interests lie directly or 
indirectly in land cultivation to see that the maximum results are 
secured from acreage by machinery and by labour. 
Many areas of ground now under other crops are quite capable of 
carrying bulbs at the same time, and bulbs bring a double harvest 
both of the flowers and of the excess of dormant bulbs. 
Until ten or fifteen years ago there was hardly any indigenous 
bulb trade in this country, but recently the industry has been success- 
fully undertaken in various parts of the British Isles. It is already 
one of the chief industries in Scilly and the Channel Islands, from 
whence tons of blooms are received in London in the spring, and are 
followed in the summer by bulbs in shiploads, for dry bulbs lend 
themselves to easy transport. 
Bulb-growing has also been particularly taken up in the Lincoln- 
shire and in the East Anglian Fenland, where some growers in Cam- 
bridgeshire have many acres under cultivation ; and there is no 
possible reason why bulbs should not be grown also in other parts 
of the country where the soil is suitable. It is found that, with the 
possible exception of hyacinths and crocuses, the bulbs equal in quality 
those received from abroad, and, in addition to supplying the home 
demand, a considerable export trade has already been set up. 
Moreover, it is an industry which can be begun on a small scale ; 
requiring very small capital and only a little bit of land, it is one 
which appears to be well worthy of everyone's attention. It is a 
pleasant and most interesting occupation, and is one, for the most 
part, within the limits of a woman's reasonable strength, and suitable 
to her sex. 
The Board of Agriculture tells us that Daffodil cultivation can be 
made to yield an annual profit of as much as £15 an acre, though the 
Board is wisely careful to qualify this by saying that in estimating the 
quantity of blooms obtained from an acre considerable latitude must 
be allowed, as the crop will vary, according to varieties and good or 
indifferent cultivation &c. Therefore it is hoped that the Show 
which is being held to-day and this Conference will inaugurate a new 
era for this industry, which is of such comparatively recent origin in 
Great Britain ; and, with profits anything like those suggested by the 
