EASTER IN THE SCILLIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 5 (Supplement)

EASTER IN THE SCILLIES.

MILLIONS OF DAFFODILS.

The SciJly Isles are. each. year becoming better known to the British holiday-maker, who in the' late summer glories in this southern airyland. But beautiful as the islands are n summer,-.the grandeur cannot be compared to March and April, when they are a blaze of golden daffodils. • * !

Mr.'Augustus Smith, once an M.P., despatched the first box of daffodils, from the Scilly Isles to Covent Garden Market some thirty-five years ago, and for his enterprise received a sovereign from the London dealer. His action led the island farmers to try to recover,.from agricultural depression by cultivating the daffodil and narcissus. From the first the result was never in doubt, for the great, towns and cities of the United Kingdom were ready enough to buy in thousands the lovely spring flowers, and the industry has attained gigantic proportions. Each,'week in March sees some two hundred tons of''flowers sent from St. Mary's, and as it requires some two hundred huge boxes to make ':• a ton, and many hundreds of blooms 1 fill a box, a simple calculation will show that St. Mary's contributes some millions of .flowers to the market. St. Mary's, the chief island of the group, has one-third of its soil devoted to the cultivation of the daffodil, and when the flowers are in full bloom the scene from an eminence is a gorgeous one, daffodil hues possessing beauties that are accentuated by the sun's rays. Formerly' English flower markets depended almost wholly upon Holland and Belgium for their daffodil supply, but farmers, discovering the value of the soil of Scilly, have been able to enter most successfully into| competition with foreign growers.; Very little attention is needed in growing daffodils, the only labour being that of thinning out and weeding, which, if done at the proper time, ensures a good crop. The industry provinces. The women gather the flowers women,'boys, and girls, who assist in the gathering, packing, and despatching of the flowers to market. , ■ The quay at St. Mary's on a spring morning is an animated sight. For hours there it is a continual procession of heavily-laden carts, going to the Penzance steamer to have their golden load sent to London and the provinces. The women gatehr the flowers into bunches of twelve, and the packing is done by men and boys. All flowers in bunches leave by the steamer at ten o'clock in the morning*to catch the train at Penzance. .. ~i ;-. ■ '■■."'■ ■.

The inhabitants of the Scillies watch with pride the increase in the number of people who are/lovers of flowers. Millions of daffodils have millions of admirers, as the crowded barrows in the streets of London prove.