The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-03-04
AN ISLAND OF LILIES.
GREAT HARVEST OF FLOWERS
 IN SCILLY.
How the Industry Started and the First
 Bulbs Were ntrOduced-Gathering
 Unopened Lilies and Preparing Them

Unopened Lilies and Preparing Them
 for Market.
 Thirty miles southwest of Lands End the naricissus farmers of Lyon- esse are busy over the produce of their floral harvest. Many a hothouse is ali aglow with white and gold, and To- cal steamers are beginning to bear their growing consignments of frag- rent boxes past the perils of the Wolf and the Rundlestone to the Great Western Railway teminus and starting point at Penzance. But beautiful as is this horticultural and fascinating as it is also in association with stormsWept little islands, runged around in the hours of heavy gales with a girdle of foam from the black crags of Penmuis to the towering rock mass of MinayaWr the story of its origin and growth is more romantic still.
 Indeed the microcosm of the Scilly Isles has had vicissitudes of fortune, if we only start with the last odd hundred years or so of it's story. In the Re- evolutionary and Napoleonic wars it did very well as port; squadrons of war ships and fleets of merchant vessel be- ing frequent visitors to its island en- circled roadstead The small farmers found an abundant market for their i Vegetables and other produce, not only with the vessels contained in harbor by eaterly winds but with the fleets always cruising off Brest and "the Gib" as our rC ok fortress at the mouth of the Medi- terranean was familiarly known to them.
 Then came the peace and commer- cial collapse, partly redeemed from disaster by the inauguration of a kelp Industry. Then the demand for kelp failed, and again there was distress stnl in the days of sailing ships an east wind always filed the pretty little roads, and undaunted enterprise also made scilly a ship owning and ship building port, Besides, the cultivation of early potatoes for the London mark ct brought new afiuence to the farm- CTS, who invested their savings in islands owned ships, Then the develop mcnt of steam destroyed ship own- ling and ship building industry and a spirit of financial gloom settled down on Lyonesse.
 All the while, however, unknown to most of it's inhabitants, the maklngs of Pactolus lay disregarded in many an lisland nook, orchard or garden. And this brings me to date about 3 years ago, when 1t is known that in the Isles of scilly there are eight varieties of narcissus quite apart from any that might be growing in the Abbey Card ems. the beautiful pleasaunce of Mir i Dorrlen- Smith of Tresco. "A few of these were to be found growing wild, others in the gardens of the farmers.
 How these flowers came unto the islands is, so Mir. Dorrien Smith, the popular King Of scllly' has told me, a matter of some obscurty Sixty seven years ago, however 1t is known i that the captain of a French vessel which had taken shelter in the roads < Gluyas It Is not unlikely that some of the varieties of marcissus men toned may have been introduced by Benedictine monks who through long generations occupied the Prlory of St Nicholas.
 Certain it is that 72 years ago the late MT. Augustus Smith the uncle of the present King, brought in several sorts of narcissus, To him must also be aseribed the credit of discerning the commercial possibilities of the bulbs. AS he sauntered about his domlnions his aesthetic eye was obser- want of the narcissus, noticed how early and luxuriantly they bloomed, and came to the conclusion that as an export they might be profitable. At length he himself wooed Covent Garden with a small consignment of lilies, and was re- warded by receiving a check for a sovereign As occasion offered he mentioned the matter to certain of his 1 tenants, but they were influenced by a natural conservative instinct and did not at first act on his hints. A few of them, however, initiated their 'King," in modest way, and contributed their mite to the supply of the London flower market
 Seillys total area is $500 acres, of which rather less than 1000 are sus- ceptitle of profitable cultivation. Con sequently the spare land, apart from the occupied farms, was more limited in quantity than it is in Manitoba. Their was a great run on it, and in a a very short time every acre adapted to narcissus culture began to be taken up. The output increased by leaps and bounds, the weight of the cut flowers running into hundreds of tons. As lilies are not individually very heavy the total harvest of blooms reached a prcdgious figure. One of the most striking sights to be seen at Scilly are the little boats laden with their fragile and fragrant flowers which struggle from the smaller "off islands some dark and stormy wintry morning, against surge and blast, to reach the steamer at St. Marys pier.
 One consequence of the growth of the narcissus industry in Scilly has been the discovery by the farmers of the value of glass houses, and the is- anders of 30 years ago would have been told how largo an archipeleagic area the mere lapse of a generation would suffice to shelter in this fashion. For mild as the sclllonian winter-is the rare apparition of ice in pond be- ing a subject for excited gossip-the marketable narcissus cannot safely be grown entirely out of doors Sand from the shore beaches, fierce spray from the mountain breakers, penetrate every nook of the islands during a heavy gale and play havoc with the