CONFERENCE ON BULB-GROWING IN THE BRITISH ISLES, 303 
Trades' Association had taken, and said that if we could compete with 
he foreigner in price, quality, and service, there was a great future 
for the industry in this country. As regards the quality, that, he 
knew, was right, and so do the large forcers of bulbs, but our bulbs 
have not the refined appearance of the Continental produce. In the 
matter of ser vice he was of the opinion that there were no insuperable 
difficulties, but price was a ruling factor in all kinds of commerce. 
Prefacing his remarks by mentioning his personal objection to 
tariffs, Mr. Cuthbertson said he believed two-thirds of the horti- 
cultural traders were strongly in favour of a tariff, and suggested that 
a standing joint committee should be appointed at an early date 
to consider the question. He expressed the opinion that to bring back 
a prosperous countryside many changes were necessary. 
Mr. G. W. Leak insisted on the necessity for education even with 
bulb cultivation. In Holland there are finely -equipped extension 
schools, where the lads, on leaving the elementary schools, receive 
expert training on subjects which will be of value to them in their 
work. He said that if we hope to compete successfully with foreigners 
we must produce bulbs of quality equal to theirs. We also must pay 
more attention to sales by sample. Here bulbs in quantity are rarely 
anything like the sample, whereas the Dutch are much more particular, 
and trade purchasers at least can rely on the sample being observed. 
This was in part due to the metric system of measurement. He 
regretted that there was no uniformity of sample in England. One 
man's first size of bulb might be comparable with, another's second 
size, and vice versa. There were, Mr. Leak continued, labour troubles 
in Holland as well as Britain, and there labour is scarce and wages 
increasingly high. In order to cope with the increased cost of pro- 
duction some Dutch growers had come over to study our methods of 
cultivation, especially with regard to ploughing in the bulbs. Mr. Leak 
concluded by advising growers to go abroad and study other methods 
if they would succeed. 
Mr. George Monro, junr., remarked that the large cut-flower 
trade gave the home grower a great advantage over the foreigner, 
but there was just as great a danger of over-production with flowers 
as with any other things. He felt that the Government should grant 
a little protection to the home grower. Then, as we can produce 
bulbs of equal merit with the foreign ones, it would be a profitable 
industry. He spoke in favour of co-operation. In the past he 
thought the R.H.S. had scarcely considered the trade sufficiently, but 
had rather confined its energies to the requirements of the private 
grower, though the trade owed a great debt to the Council for their 
action with regard to the investigations which they have initiated 
into the ' streak ' and other diseases. The question of samples was 
a vexed one, and any failures were due to human nature. In his 
opinion that remark applied as much to Holland as to England, but 
the Continental packing was much better than ours. He did not 
agree with Mr. Leak that the adoption of the metric system would 
