234 THE FRUITS OF THE COUNTRY-SIDE 



quench the furious heate of choler, restore an appetite to 

 meate which was lost by reason of cholericke and corrupt 

 humours, and are good against the pestilent diseases. The 

 juice of these also is boyled till it be thicke, with sugar 

 added that it may be kept, which is good for all things 

 that the berries are, yea, and far better." On the Continent 

 they are by fermentation made into a kind of wine, and 

 they lare also converted into a pleasant acidulous cooling 

 beverage for the hot weather, or, rather, for the relief of 

 the thirst that the hot weather induces. 



One curious result of the war in 1570 between Germany 

 and France was its effect on the marketing of all kinds 

 of wild fruit. Thousands of barrels of hedgerow and 

 moorland gatherings are in the ordinary course of events 

 exported every year from Germany to France. These, 

 bilberries, cranberries, bird-cherries, and the like, form, it 

 is not obscurely hinted, a very important element in the 

 production of claret and other vintages. There being 

 no foreign market for these in war-time, the fruit, arriving 

 in cartloads in the various towns of the Fatherland, became 

 a mere drug in the market, and beautiful strawberries, 

 raspberries, and other wild fruits were going for a mere 

 song, whatever that standard of value may be. Before 

 the war the export value from Hanover alone was over 

 three hundred thousand francs a year, chiefly, of course, 

 the result of child labour. 



BEAR-BERRY (Arctostaphylos Uva Ursi) 



Another graceful little plant, though one must go to 

 Scotland, Ireland, or the North of England to see it, is 

 the Bear-berry. It delights to grow amongst the heather 



