of narcissus, daffodil, and lily are now cultivated.
"The beds are renewed every third year. This is necessary to retain
the vigour of the plant, as if allowed to remain too long without
lifting, the bulbs crowd each other and send up barren and feeble
shoots. When the bulbs are lifted they are divided, and any surplus
stock either sold or replanted in fresh ground. The beds require very
little attention further than being kept free from weeds, and having a
top-dressing of stable litter or freshly gathered seaweed. Bulbs will
not stand forcing, and are always sturdier when grown in the open."
Men, women, and children find employment in the flower-fields, and in
the busy time are often engaged from early morning till long after
sunset. Picking must be done with great care, the blooms being
gathered before they are fully opened or they will not bear carriage.
A number are now sent by Parcel Post, as well as in more wholesale
method. Within twenty-four hours of being plucked they are exposed in
the London markets, or being offered for sale in the streets of large
towns by the flower-hawkers. Some even go as far as Scotland. During
1907 as many as 1,000 tons were despatched from St. Mary's Quay, the
cost of freight being L6 10s. per ton. Besides paying this heavy
charge, the Scillonians have to compete with growers in the south of
Cornwall, and even as far eastward as Dorset; while Continental
florists can pour their produce into England at a rate that further
hampers the home trade.

Things are very different now from what they were when the mail
arrived irregularly from Penzance, and letters were distributed from
the window of the one small post-office in St. Mary's. Each of the
inhabited isles has now its own postal and telegraph office; and they
are also connected with the mainland by telephone, for coastguard
purposes. To be at Scilly is no longer to be quite out of the world.
There was a spice of romance about the manner in which the first cable
to Scilly was laid--or, perhaps we should say, was not laid. By the
Act that came into force in 1870 the Government had agreed to buy over
on favourable terms all telegraphs that at that time were found in
actual existence as working concerns. With a view to large profits,
companies sprang into being, hoping to get their wires into working
order, so as to be bought over on the appointed day. One such company
took the Scilly Isles into its charge--not from any benevolent
motiv