The St. Johns herald., 1900-10-13
IN THE LAVENDER FIELDS.
The Work of Harvesting EnsIand's
 Great Crop of scent-Laden FlOwerns ~

4uS1S are 1eW ulOEc ue1lSu 1u1 SceucS
 than B field of lavender. with the morn
 ing sun lighting mp the ever changing
 colors of the swaying stems. AS f1eecy
 clouds move across the sky the blue
 mauye of the field takes a 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 8 moment; the variations
 are ceaseIess., The color of lavender
 field has bafied 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
 the sprigs of bloom. It may surprise
 a good many people to learn that there
 is not, nor has there been for many
 years, such thing as Mitcham laven-
 der. There was a 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 a radius of
 about six miles Surrey's lavender grow 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 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 Apes Maritimes gather it and distill the oils in primitive fashion. There is 7 nothing primitive in, the way the in- dustry is carried on in this country, and 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 a field of yearlings, the rows radiating | in perfect formation from a middle | point, is eminently attractive. There is no mistaking the two and three-year- old crops, for while the former may l 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 8 distinct difference in colr between a field of lavender two years old and one which is nearing the | end of its term, the young blossoms | partaking of 8 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 of the struggling sprigs which interfere with their runs the lav- 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 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 about 60 pounds of lavender stalks, and in this way the bloom is carried to the stills. Here coppers holding as much as ton of lavender boil the flowers, the steam which is given off 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-like buildings of two stories, with the furnaces below and the distillery in the floor above. Carefully the boil ing process is watched until the time comes for securing the precious oil of lavender, 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 one is roaming. It is the growing law ender which possesses so many charms for the visitor. The air is charged with a faint scent of the flower, the bees (black humble bees) buzz in thousands above the sprigs of blossom, and butter ,s fiies-the chalkhill blue, the handsome sulDhur-tinted yellow and many others