Horticultural Notes.

Golden Bay Argus, Volume VI, Issue 72, 14 October 1897, Page 3

Horticultural Notes.

LAVENDER GROWING. A series of bad seasons, combined with large importations of foreign essential oilsj»have seriously injured the lavender industry of Hitchin and Mitcham, the great centres in England, of the growth of “sweet lavender.” These districts are specially suitable for the lavender plant, owing to the subsoil of chalk being peculiarly favourable to its growth. Cold wet weather largely affects the yield of lavender, and the price of the oil varies very much. Sometimes the oil is worth as much as £8 to £lO per lb., at others it goes as low as 295. per lb. The foreign essence, which is distilled from the wild lavender, is sold at from ss. to 6s. per lb. Although this plant is cultivated in the south of France and other southern European countries, the oil made from it is very inferior to that produced in parts of England ; although the plant thrives well enough, the distilled oil never realises as much as that made about Mitcham, in Surrey, and Hitchin, in Hertfordshire. Lavender grows well in the mountainous districts bordering the western shores of the Mediterranean, and along from eastern Spain to Calabria and Northern Africa. It is also found in Persia and the Canaries.

What is commonly known as “lavender water ” is in reality a compound of essential oil of lavender with rectilied spirits of wine, rosemary, jasmine, bergamot, attar of roses, orange flowers, and musk. In the “ Garden ” of last January is an interesting account of how lavender is grown and manufactured into oil, from which we make extracts.

A sandy loam, with a calcareous sub stratum, is regarded as the best soil, while the most favourable position is a southern slope, where fogs do not reach, and where light airs blow freely. The plants are propagated by cuttings or divisions of the roots. The former take six weeks to strike. In the flowering season, if dull wet weather prevails, only half the usual quantity of oil is expressed. If the growth is very luxuriant a mowingmachine is used, but generally the flowers are reaped with a sickle. The bunches are tied up by women and children, then those reserved for the still are laid loose on mats, which, when filled and skewered up, are carted to the distillery. The stills are of sufficient dimensions to contain a ton and a half weight of the herb. The still is thrice filled in twenty-four hours, eight hours to a run. The men get upon the upper floor, remove the still-head by means of a lever, llien take the lavender from the mats, and tread the stalks down with their feet in the same way as with hops, until the copper is tightly tilled to the bi-in). Liquor at boiling heat is then taken from the top surface of the wormtub, although at the bottom and lower surface the water is quite cold, and the furnaces are set at work. The worm consists of piping attached to the head of the still, and passes round and round the tub which contains the cold water. Directly the liquor begins to flow over tlie head in the worm the men know that the oil is running, and they damp down the furnaces. The boiling liquor from the herbs, by passing through the tubing immersed in cold water, becomes condensed, and the oil separates from the winter, and runs into the percolator at the foot of the worm-tub. This “ brimming over” is the most critical in the whole operation, at which great attention and experience are needed ; otherwise the herbs, both stalk and flower, might be taken into the worm, and the oil would be spoiled. The essential oil thus extracted is taken and placed in dark glass bottles with short necks, each containing from 41b. to 71b., ready for stile. Our climate is eminently adapted for lavender growing, and there is no doubt plenty of°suitable land is to be had in various parts of the colony. Such an exceptional season as the present one would not be very favourable for the industry, but as compared with the English climate, ours must be infinitely superior in the long run.