220 
Market-Gardening in the Scilly Islands. 
majority were disinclined to give up potatoes for flowers in ever so 
small a degree ; but one farmer thought over Mr. Smith's sugges- 
tion, and collected some of the flowers growing on his ground. He 
sent the little lot to London, on which he cleared 2s. 6c?. ; and this was 
the beginning of the floriculture in Scilly, which has now reached 
giant proportions. 
Just about the time that the last report of these Islands was 
printed in the Journal, the Scillonians were brought more into 
touch with the mainland by means of a steamer which was started 
to run between the Islands and Penzance, and by means of a tele- 
graphic cable between the two. Thus the potatoes found a quick 
market, and the growers were kept informed of current prices. For 
the first fruits of the potato crop — generally in May — as much as 
Is. 6d a pound has been received. Gradually the inhabitants were 
encouraged and stimulated to grow various new vegetables, and 
asparagus, seakale parsley, and tomatoes were added to those sent 
to market. 
The growers had their anxieties and troubles then, even as iioav — 
the exposed situation of the Islands, and the lack of woods and trees, 
to provide natural protection to their fields from the biting winds 
and heavy gales which sweep over the land, gave them many 
a night in "the open," keeping up fires round the fields to preserve 
the budding potatoes. 
It was this need of protection to their plants which caused them 
to supersede the loose, stone divisions of land by planting laurel, 
escallonia, and other picturesque shrubs for hedges. This planting 
of hedges was, indeed, the foundation and preparation of the new 
development in the farming of the Islands. To-day the land is 
no longer given up solely to the growing of potatoes, parsley, 
asparagus, and seakale, for a large proportion is devoted to floriculture 
— a combination which has answered well in every way. The result 
may be seen in the absence of poverty, in the quiet, unobtrusive 
independence of the people, in the improved outhouses on the farms, 
and in the possession of better farming-implements. The people 
are neither so rich nor so poor as they have been (it was a jiroverb, 
" Either a feast or a famine in Scilly "), their life is freer of excite- 
ment than it used to be, and they seem to have fallen into the happy 
medium of comfort and content. 
Last season the following supplies were sent from the Islands to 
the various markets on the mainland by the steamer plying between 
Scilly and Penzance : — 
46,000 pads of fish (a pad is 50). 
200 tons of flowers. 
800 tons of potatoes + 230 tons sent by boats and smacks. 
150 tons of other vegetables. 
.'i tons of seakale, from St. Mary's alone. 
5 tons of tomatoes. 
The expense of carriage is lis. per cwt. to Scotland, and 7s. 6d. 
to Covent Garden. The salesman's charge is 10 per cent, if lie 
supplies boxes, and 7.^ if he does not. 
