The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-10-07
BIG MONEY MADE
 IN WITCH HAZEL
Curious Industry Which Cen ters at Old Essex on Con-
 necticut River.

Now that the heavy farm work of
 the season is over, many of the young
 men in the towns and villages along
 the Connecticut river in the southern
 part of the state are busy cutting
 witch hazel brush in the swamps and
 lowlands back of the cultivated farms
 The manufacture of witch hazel is one
 of the great industries of Conn ecticut,
 and the town of Essex on the Con-
 necticut river, a few miles north of it's mouth, is the worlds factory centre. The largest storehouse for witch hazel extract is there and frequently over 5000 barrels of the fluid is stored in it at a time. From Essex the extract is shipped all over the world. a large quantity going to Paris, where it is used in the manufacture of toilet prep aratfons, but there is always enough left to supply the barber. shops of the United States, for the barber trade of the country consumes thousands of gallons.
 The witch hazel plant, known to bot any as Hamamelfs virginfana, grows in rocky sWamps and blooms late in the fall. It is found al the way from Louisiana to Canada, but by soIne freak of nature it seems to enjoy the climate of Connecticut more than that of any other State, and since it's medic ina1 qualities were discovered, over half a. century ago by minister of Essex, the Rev Thomas Dickinson, it has added materially to the wealth and activity of that State.
 MT. Dickinson distilled witch hazel about the middle Of the last century, and his neighbors found 1t so good that others quickly took up the busi- ness on more ambitious lines. He also distilled oil of birch. which is known commercially as oil Of evergreen, and3 in late years this has also grown to7 be a large industry about Essex, Ches- ter and Clinton.
 The cutting of witch hazel is al source of considerable income to the farmers and helpers in Middlesex and New London counties. The pay is about $3.5 a ton or about $5s85 for a load. An acre of swamp land, says The Rural New Yorker, where the brush grows thfck1y, will yield about mated that sixteen acres yield from eight to ten tons, which bring $2S to l $35 Oxen haul the brush because they work better in the swamps than horses and the average load for 8. team of oxen is about 5000 pounds. It does not do to cut the witch hazel too thor oughly from the locality in which it grows, for once cut it requires from three to five years for a new crop to attain sufficient size for cutting.
 Many of the young men who go out to make few extra dollars by cut ting witch hazel band together in clubs of three or four and build a camp in the woods near big patch of the brush and spend two weeks or a month in the woods When a long stay is planned the gang makes outside ar to have the brush hauled to the mill as soon as possible, for the earlier it arrives at the distiIlation 1 headquarters the better. It may be in 1 teresting to know that the.Rev. MT. Dickinson's early recognition of the l value of witch haze1 was to the profit l of the present members of the family. 1 One of his descendants in Essex owns 1 the largest distillery in the world de- voted to this purpose.