VALUE OF SNAILS.

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1402, 11 September 1923, Page 3

VALUE OF SNAILS.

A.\ UNDEVELOPED INDUSTRY. Snail-farming is aa undeveloped English industry, out of which a big j profit might be made if our native | prejudice against the delicacy could Ibe overcome, says a London Star ' writer. Snails could he reared in ; many districts where the Romans 1 made their homes. One locality specially noted for the large snails which ' I hey cultivated is the lields and j hedges round the Roman villa at I Xorthleigh, near Oxford. The Roj mans Kepi, their snails on cochlearia \ (herbs; —like the French with their j uscargatories, or snail nurseries—also I feeding and fattening them with wine- | sodden bran. According to Varro, the I snails grew to such a size that the empty shells w.ould hold a pint or ! more of water. At Tyting, near Guildford, the large edible snail flourishes. However, while the English people eat plentifully of the whelk and the winkle (sea snails) the fortunate land snail, a clean feedj er, unlike the sea variety, is only enI joyed by a comparative few. Neveri theless, the escargot de Bourgoyne, eaten from a silver bowl, with a silver three-pronged fork as a means of ! conveying the 'long, gelatinous things to the mouth. and brought to the | table very hot, and swimming in a I rich garlic-flavoured sauce, is a ; delicacy to rave about. The Burj gundy snail has a pronounced taste j for bran soaked in wine, but the an- : cient snails of Southern England are | edible without being fed in this way. j Snails are good for cases of consump- | tion, and if we held Continental conl victions as to the value of snails for i those afflicted by that scourge we i should certainly have snail farms. Abroad, snail broth and snail jelly j are given to children with weak { chests, and a cough is met by lozenI ges made chiefly of stewed or boiled I snail-stuff.