The Washington times., 1901-11-10
SOME QUEER HARvEsTs.
How Sea,veed and Brncken Are Gar.
nercd in England.

Although the harvest home festivals
are, most of them, over, the harvests of
1901 are not all in. Leaf-gathering is now
in full swing Tons of oak leaves are gar
nered by market and flower gardeners
and thrown into pits, where<they lie for
year and rot down to leaf mold The
potash which they contain makes this
mixture most valuable as a fertilizer and
for use in greenhouses.
Beech leaves, too are collected in the
South of England. They make the best
Of cheap mattresses when properly dried
and are worth 10 shiiings a ton for that
purpose
Unless you have lived in Lincolnshire or
Cambridgeshire, you have probably never
helped in the hammer and litter harvest,
which is another important yet little
known industry. Hammer sedge grows in
the Fens, and is cut with a special
scythe. and made into sheaves, of which
twenty go to a shock. 1t is generally
brought out on boats, and sells for about
shillings a shock. 1t is used for thatch-
ing cottages One peculiarity OF the
sedge harvest is that it only comes once
in two years. the sedge taking that length
of time TO attain the requisite height for
cutting. The rougher qualities, which are
unsuited for thatching, are used, as
their name implies for litter in carthorse
stables and cowsheds.
The bracken han yest is now over, for
bracken is best cut green. The fern when
dried, makes capital bedding in cow-sta-
bles. II is much cheaper than straw, and
much warmer into the bargain Ii is put
up in big stacks, just like straw, and
carefully matched to keep out the wet
Bracken is cut with an ordinary scythe,
and, to be at its best, should have three
days sun on 1t before carrying. From the
New Forest million and half hundred
weight Of bracken is cut every year by
Government, and gives q revenue of
shilling an acre for the whole area. 1t
fetches about Z shillings a load.
July II TO August 81 is the period allowed
by law for the most important of Guern-
seys harvests. In that time $4,000 loads-
of seaweed are cut and harvested. The
weed is used TO make all those delicious
vegetables grow which begin to arrive in
London soon after the New Year.
1t is chopped of at the roots, and hauled
in with long handled rakes. The Cornish
and Irish scaweed harvests come little
later. Cornish weed is used for fertIlizing
all those hundreds of acres of broccoli
round Penzance: Irish is used principally
for making size. and for brewing PURPOSES
II is also employed by makers of paper,
cloth, felt and straw hats. The famous
Carragree moss is unexcelled for jelly
making for invalids. Ii is also suppressed
ing gum arabic as the principal constitu-
ent of the jujube.
The soap and glass harvests are not
now so important as they once were; but
there is still a large quantity of saltwort
cut for barilla- making. Saltwort Is a
plant growing on the salt marshes, from
which coarse sort of carbonate OF soda
Is extracted. called barilla. Barilla is
largely used in the making of both soap
and glass.
Seventy pounds of lavender-fiowers
yield one pound Of oil, and 1t costs no less
lavender. Yet. so great is the yield that
a field of lavender down at Wellington
will yield, when harvested, $50 in sea-
SON Wellington has now succeeded
Mitcham as the centre of lavender-land
One Of Britain's biggest harvests takes
place quite at the wrong end OF the year
that is, in spring, instead of autumn.
This is oak-bark harvest. 1t is only In
spring. when the sap is running, that ii
is possible TO loosen the brak from the
trunk. The tree is felled, and the rough,
outer part of the berk Is cut away with
a "scraper." Thetrunk and boushs are
then pounded with a mallet. and the bark
removed with a barking iron" Oak
bark, which is used for tanning, must
be dried very carefully. II is necessary
for a current of air TO circulate freely
about the pieces; but neither sun nor
rain Is good for them. So making q
bark-stack Is q work only undertaken by
experienced men.-Answers.