Narcissus and Daffodil

402 C.G. Julian and P.W. Bowers
Figure 18.4 Secondary facial rash. (See Colour plate 4)
Apart from ‘daffodil itch’, there are other medical problems associated with
picking narcissus flowers. The workers are perpetually bent forwards, with their
backs to the wind, and are prone to backache. All pickers run the risk of having
repetitive strain injury to the wrist, from the twisting action as the flower stem is
plucked from the plant. The more inexperienced pickers sometimes wear inappropriate
clothing, and can develop chilblains on the backs of their thighs and
buttocks (Julian and Bowers, 1997).
Handling bulbs
Bulb lifting takes place during a six week period in June/July. Between 12 and
20 tonnes of bulbs are planted per hectare. After two or three years, depending on
the variety, the yield of bulbs should be at least twice the planted weight, bulb
quality is at its peak, and the bulbs are harvested. With a total UK crop area of
over 4000 ha, huge numbers of bulbs are involved. In Lincolnshire, where the
land was reclaimed from the sea and there are no large stones in the soil, the
lifting process is often largely mechanical. Lifting machines (complete harvesters)
lift the bulbs and transfer them to a hopper, removing much of the soil in the
process, although workers on the lifting machine may remove clods. The bulbs are
then transported to sheds for grading and further treatment. In Cornwall, where
the soil contains large stones and the fields are often small and steeply sloping, the
lifting process is only partly mechanical, the bulbs being elevated by a lifting
machine to the surface where they are left to dry for several days before being
gathered into baskets by hand and transferred to large boxes. Seasonal workers
are again employed to pick up the bulbs, making the procedure more labourintensive
in Cornwall than in Lincolnshire. In Cornwall the bulbs are dry when
picked and are handled relatively little, and in practice this gives few problems to
those that collect them.