Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-25
THE BRIAR-ROOT INDUSTRY.
Whence the Wood Comes and How 1t
is Worked.


Mr.. Carmichael British vice consul at
Leghorn devotes an interesting section of
the report on his district for the past year
to an account of the briar-root industry.
The wood, he says, from which briar pipes
are made is not the root of the briar rose,
but the root of the large heath known in
botany as Erica arborea. Our "briar' is
but a corruption of the French bruyere-
broom or heath. The briar-root industry
has had a somewhat curious history. First
begun in the Pyrenees some fifty years ago.
it travelled along the French Riviera and the
Ligurian coast, taking Corsica by the way,
TO the Tuscan Maremma and it has now
reached Calabria in the south, which is at
present its most fiourishing center. Nat
urally, when district has been exhausted
of all its roots the industry must come to
an end there, and the opinion has been ex-
pressed that the Italian branch of it cannot
last much more than another ten years
Leghorn has always been the center of the
export of Tuscan briar-root since the Ma
remma industry came into existence. but
the south Italian brar is of superior
quality, a large quantity of the Caabrian
root is also imported into Leghorn for Sc
lection and subsequent export. The total
export from Leghorn is estimated at $1,000
hundred weight in the year. valued at about
f2S,0O. Fully half the export is Calabrian
root. All the root that arrives in Leghorn
has already been cut on the spot into the
shape in which 1t Is exported to the pipe
manufacturing centers. which are princi-
pally. regards Italian briar, st. Cloud in
France. Nuremberg in Bavaria and various
towns in Rhensh Prussia and Thuringia.
The roots which are sometimes of cir
conference of two feet or more. are cut
into blocks and then boiled If there is any
defect in the root which has not been discov-
cred before the boiling process the blocks
will split sooner or later. Briar-root blocks
are cut into about twenty-five different sizes
and three principal shapes. The shapes are
"Marseilaise." relieve and Belgian The
first two are the more usual shapes, from
the first are cut the ordinary briar pipes,
which have bowl and stem at right angles;
relieve" blocks cut into a shape for
hanging pipes. and Belgian blocks. for
which there is but small demand are shaped
to fashion into pipes which have bowl and
stem at An obtuse angle. The minimum
size of the "Marse!iaise blocks is about
three inches long. two inches thick and one
and a half inches broad. The Calabrian
blocks selected dt Leghorn and exported
thence, seem to be in favor with the trade.
as they remain So long on the dealers
hands that they would be almost certain to
split before export if they were defective.
Leghorn dealer who does his own cutting
in Calabria has first to send the roots by
wagon to his workshops, where they are
boiled and cut, thence again by wagon TO
the seacoast, where they are placed in
lighters for shipment to Leghorn. At Leg
horn the? are once more transferred to
lighters and placed in carts for transport
to the warehouses, where they are unpacked
for selection. They are then reDacked in
bales and carted to the goods station for
conveyance abroad. Hence. a considera BILE
time must elapse before they leave the
hands of a merchant who does his own cut
ting in Calabria. considerable number of
apparently, none whatever to the united
Kingdom