Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1899-12-01
IN THE LAVENDER FIELDS.
The Work of Harvesting EngIand's
Great Crop of Scent-Laden
Flowers.

| There are few more delightful scenes
than field of lavender, with the morn
mg sun lighting up the ever changing
colors of the swaying stems. As fieecy
clouds move across the sky the blue
nauve of the field takes Il darker tinge.
| and then, as the suns brilliant light
plays again without hindrance on the
great patch of scent-laden flowers, the
| hue becomes almost a Cambridge blue.
| But only for a moment; the variations
are ceaseless. The color of lavender
| field has baff1ed the brush of many an
artist, and none that we can recall has
ever been able to catch these wondrous
shifting tints with anything like truth.
Spring frosts often do considerable
damage to the lavender plants, but al
though this year the froSts were keen
enough to cut down the potato haulm
they seem to have spared the lavender.
The net result is that, while the bunch
es of so-called ''Mitcham lavender"
which find their way to Covent Garden
are full and well favored this year, the
yield of essential oils is also excellent,
for the long spell of sunshine has en-
riched the little cups which constitute
the sprigs of bloom. 1t may surprise
a good many people to learn that there
is not, nor has there been for many
years, such a thing as Mitcham laven
der. There was q time when Figs
Marsh boosted as many as five stills,
and when Mitcham was certainly the
center of the lavender industry, but the
scene of operations has shifted, and
now Beddington, Wellington and Car
Shalfnn nSfifI1fa with a r96inS of
about six miles Surveys lavender grow
ing area. There are something like
$50 acres under cultivation in Surrey
(notably at Carshalton), and if the re-
tailers maintain the Mitcham legend it
is because the Surrey lavender is noted
for its quality and Mitcham is a good
name to stick to. The flower is alsso
grown at Hitchin (Herts), Grove Ferry,
near Canterbury, and in Bedfordshire.
Lavender growing is certainly one
of the things better done in England
than in France, for a pound of English
oil ranges in price from 25 shillings to
as much as 100 shillings in exceptional
times, whereas seven shillings or eight
shillings is the price obtained for an
equal quantity of the French variety.
A good deal of the French lavender is
grown wild, and the natives of the
Alpes Maritimes gather it and distill
the oils in primitive fashion. There is
nothing primitive in the way the in
dustry is carried on in this country,
and a visit to the fields of one of the
largest growers of Carshalton, William
Wood, affords abundant evidence of the
careful manner in which operations are
conducted from the time when the
young plants are put in the ground
until they have reached the zenith of
their oil-yielding powers in the third
and last year of their existence. In the
first year they are planted some 20
inches apart, and in the following sea-
son alternate rows are transplanted
elsewhere, leaving the spreading
plants more than three feet of space
in which to thrive and develop. The
planting is done on the square, and
the symmetry of design presented to
a visitor standing in the center of
field of yearlings, the rows radiating
in perfect formation from a middle
point, is eminently attractive. There is
no installing the two and three-year-
old crops, for while the former may
be, as they are this season, full bodied
and strong, the sprigs of the older
plants are weighed down with the
weight of their oil-laden cups. Then,
too, there is a distinct difference in
co1r between field of lavender two
years old and one which is nearing the
end of its term, the young blossoms
partaking of a more delicate hue. One
advantage the lavender grower pos
sesses over other cu1tivators is that
he has no need to fear the depredations
of the birds. Partridges and larks may
build their nests in his lavender, but
the scent of the flower tempts them not
at all, and but for the fact that the rab-
bits may bite off the struggling sprigs
which interfere with their runs the Law
ender has no enemy save the spring
frosts.
The harvesting has to be conducted
with great care. The fields rapidly
ripen under the summer sun, and all
the reaping which is done for the
callers of ''sweet lavender, 16 branches
a penny" has to be done while the
dew is still upon the land, for to
''bunch" the sprigs when the sun
has dried the ripe blooms would
mean to lose millions of the scent Civ
ings cups that would fall under the
pressure of the reaper. The lavender
which is destined for the distillery,
and which is cut throughout the day, is
laid on what are known as ST. Peters
burg mats, which are bound around
about 60 pounds of lavender stalks, and
in this way the bloom is carried to the
stills. Here coppers holding as much
as a ton of lavender boil the flowers,
the steam which is given oil being con-
densed, and the oil separated from the
water. Stripped to the waist, the men
work night and day in the heat of the
barn-ike buildings of two stories, with
the furnaces below and the distillery