Before the 20th century farming on the Isles of Scilly had many difficulties, though the soil was, as reported by John Leland in the early 16th century very good for cereal growing. Because farmers in need of money often sold their corn to passing ships which led to famine such sales had to be prohibited by order. Another practice was burning the ore-weed (laminaria) to produce the alkali kelp which went on all summer. It was collected and burnt in large kilns for about five hours until it liquified when a group of men would turn it over with long-handled iron forks. Arthur Quiller-Couch described how the men would be surrounded by the young women and girls dancing in a chain. All this effort only earned each family a few pounds, not enough to keep them over the next winter. Flower farming was a profitable industry on the Isles of Scilly for most of the 20th century. In a 1987 study of the Scillonian economy, S. Neate found that many farms on the islands were struggling to remain profitable due to increasing costs and strong competition from overseas producers, with resulting diversification into tourism. Recent statistics suggest that agriculture on the islands now represents less than 2 percent of all employment. Flower farming was also carried on in parts of west Cornwall but has declined due to increasing costs and strong competition from overseas producers.