The Lexington intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1901-1949, 1903-11-07
THE TEAsEL.
Peculiar Industry Once a Specially
in S~kaneateles, N. Y.

Thurlow of that New York town
of strange name, according to the
Sun, 1T raises teasles, which for
many years could not be success
fully producedin any other section
of this broad land of all sorts o.
products"
Somebody wanted to know what
a teasel was.
1T is a plant" continued Mr..
Thurlow, "whOse burr is used to
produce a pile on cloth, and for
certain kinds of fabrics nothing
has yet been found to take its
place. Forty years or more ago
the teasel was in great demand,
and as they could not be raised
anywhere except in a small area
about Skaneateles, the industry
was very considerable within a
radius of ten miles of my town.
Teasel raising began as long ago
as eighty years and at one time it
represented a business of half a
million dollars a year and over 500
people We're engaged in it. To
day not more than a hundred are
in it, and the amount has SINH
larly decreased. This is owing
rather to the production Of
smoother cloth than the adoption
of a substitute for the teasel, be-
cause, as | said, they cannot geta
substitute for it. Steel has been
tried but the finest points they can
make are rough and jagged COM
pared with the ine-hooked points
which nature puts on the teasel
burr, and which are necessary in
producing the proper nap on the
cloth.
"The teasel is sowni in the spring
as soon as the ground is ready,
and the plant is left to grow till
the frost kills it down. The root
remains, and the following season
the plant grows from this and
bears the burrs, which are cut in
August, basketed and wagoned to
sheds, where they are housed and
trimmed ready for the market. An
acre of ground will produce from
$4,000 to 200, 1000 teasels, running
ten pounds to the thousand and
worth now from 7S cents to 81 a
thousand, although | have seen
them worth as much as s. a thou
sand. | remember buying 3,000,-
GOO teasels at so cents a thousand
from a man who had held themfOr
81 years, and had at one time re
fused $3.50 a thousand for them.
They require three or four weeks
to dry; then they are trimmed,
the stems cut to about six inches.
and then are packed in boxes, 40,-
000 to the box. The burrs vary in
length from an inch to six inches,
and they are DESIGNATED by sizes
as Buttons Mediums and
Kings those of from an inch to.
an inch and a half being choice. A
great many are shipped abroad,
and several years ago | sent a lot
to Moscow.
Some people say the bull
thistle and the teasel are the
same, but if they will examine the
two they will find that the prongs
of the wild teasel are straight,
while those of the real thing are
hooked, which is all the difference
In the world for the work they
have to do. In the woOllen mills
a tVdSCl VIII idNl ANU, ~ lOuISt
and some of the big mills in New
England have used as high as l.,
100000 a day, but they don't use
them that way now. Very com.
Portable fortunes were once made
In teasel raising, too, but that
time is past also. Most of the
product is used now in the making
of blankets and coarse cloths.
Skaneateles is out of it, to a large
extent, as Oregon has come into
the field with even a better teasel
than we can produce, and we are
turning out ploughshares to other
uses. Any visitor to our town
may see teasel farms and the
teasel clippers at their benches
shipping away with their scissors,
but the business is no longer what
It once was, and it isn't improv-
3, ing"