The St. Johns herald., 1900-10-20
IN THE LAVENDER FIELDS.
The Work of Harvesting England's
 Great Crop of Scent-Laden ~ Flowers;


 colors of the swaying stems. AS f1eecy
 clouds move across the sky the blue
 mauve of the field takes 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 Cambridge blue.
 But only for moment; the variations
 are ceaseless. The color of lavender
 field has baffled 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 we'll 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 i the sprigs of bloom. It may surprise
 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 time when Figs
 Marsh boasted 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 shalton constitute with radius of about six miles Surrey's lavenderlgrow- ing area. There are something like 15O 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 good name to stick to. The flower is also 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 pound of English oil ranges in price from 25 shillings to 1 as much as 100 shillings in exceptional i times, whereas seven shillings or eight | shillings is the price obtained for an ". i A good deal of the French lavender is | grown wild, and the natives of the | Apes Maritimes gather it and dfstill i 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 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 mistahng 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 years old and one which is nearing the end of its term, the young blossoms partaking of more delicate hue. One advantage the lavender grower pos sesses over other cultivators 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 lav- ender has no enemy save the spring frosts.
 The harvesting has to be conducted E 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 giv- 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 IS ton of lavender boil the flowers, 1ensed, and the oil separated from the water. Stripped to the waist, the men work night and day in the heat of the oarn-hke buildings of two stories, with he furnaces below and the distillery n the floor above. Carefully the boil ng process is watched until the time comes for securing the precious oil of avender, which makes scent for the million. But that after all is the busi- ness and the least attractive side of the calling of the grower over whose fields )Qc 1e IOoInAAS' 4O ID tAO SIONIHS IdN- ender which possesses so many charms for the visitor. The air is charged with l faint scent of the flower, the bees black humble bees) buzz in thousands boye the sprigs of blossom, and butter iies-the chalkhill blue, the handsome z yellow and many others ( add 10 this scene of varied colors over which the reaper is passing with the I wish of his sickle. Who would not .nYY the lavender rrn1ver who mr. ] .