Show LAVENDER HARVEST BE GOOD english town has D stilled flowers and sent extract all over world for many years london one of the minor bar vests that promises well Is that of the lavender fields some nourishing crops are to be seen in the hitchin neighborhood comparatively few know of this quaint town as an am lavender growing center yet it has grown the sweet old herb which the romans called 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 hitchin district had less rain and more sunshine than the london area recently and consequently the long trim rows of lavender plants in their dusky green look strong and healthy they are beginning to show their flower buds and there is every likelihood of an abundant yield at cut ting time mr perks the modern re presenta alve of ohp farm of perks llewellyn who in were the pioneers here of lavender farming and distilling said that even this industry must be num bared among those which are suffer ing from foreign competition it is al most entirely owing to the importation of cheap french oil of lavender that the area under the chop at least in this neighborhood Is gradually de creasing he said the reason Is that hitchin has al ways prided itself on producing the finest extract of baender laender la ender flowers ob tal and that in view of the tor eign competition Is an expensive standard to maintain nothing but the heads of bloom go into the still the more stalk used the ranker is the oil produced there is a wonderful difference in quality between the english and french oil at cutting time people come in from miles around to inhale the sweetness of the fields and when the distilling begins the fragrance of lav ender Is borne on the wind two miles or more from the town the flowers are put into the still with the fresh bloom of their maturity on them and from six pounds of such flowers about halt an ounce of oil is ex |