Show LAVENDER HARVEST BE GOOD English Town Has Distilled Flowers and Sent Extract All Over World for Many Years LondonOno of tho minor harvests har-vests that promises well is that of tho lavender fields Some flourishing crops are to be seen in the Hltchln neighborhood Comparatively few know of this quaint Hertfordshire town aa an Important Im-portant lavender growing center yet it has grown the sweet old herb which tho Romana called lavandula when they used it to scent their baths has distilled the flowers and sent their extract into all parts of the world for more than a century The Hitchln district had less rain and more sunshine than tho London area recently and consequently tho long trim rows of lavender plants lii their dusky green look strong and healthy Thoy are beginning to show their flower buds and there Is every likelihood of an abundant yield at cutting cut-ting time Mr Perks tho modern representative representa-tive of the firm of Perks Llewellyn who in 1790 were the pioneers hero of lavender farming and distilling said that even this industry must bo numbered num-bered among those which are suffering suffer-ing from foreign competition It Is almost al-most entirely owing to the Importation of cheap French oil of lavender that tho area under tho crop at least in this neighborhood Is gradually decreasing de-creasing ho said The reason is that Hltchln has always al-ways prided Itself on producing the finest extract of lavender flowers obtainable I ob-tainable and that In view of the foreign for-eign competition Is an expensive standard to maintain Nothing but the heada of bloom go Into the still The more stalk used the ranker Is tho 011 produced There I Is n wonderful difference in quality between the English and French oil I I At cutting time people como In 1 I from nil = around to Inlte t tlm sweetness of tho fields and when the distilling begins the fragrance of lavender lav-ender is borne on tho wind two miles or more from the town Tho flowers aro put Into the still with the fresh bloom of their maturity on them and from six pounds of such flowers about half an ounce of oil is ex tracted |