198 ODOROGRAPHIA. 



soil be favourable, the plants retain their vitality, and the field is 

 lightly top-dressed in the spring with Peruvian guano. In fresh 

 ground the plant requires hand-weeding two or three times, as the 

 hoe cannot be used without injury to the roots and stolons of the 

 plants. If the weather is very wet in August, and the soil too 

 heavy for the excess of moisture to pass freely down, the leaves of 

 the plants are apt to drop off and leave the stems almost bare. It 

 is said that if a rope be run over the plants, one man walking 

 along one furrow and another along the nearest one, so as to 

 remove excessive moisture from the herbage, the rust may be to a 

 great extent prevented from spreading. 



The gathering of the herb for 'distillation commences about the 

 beginning or middle of August and lasts for some weeks, the stills 

 being kept at work night and day. The time for gathering is 

 judged by the opening of the flower spikes. In fine sunshiny 

 weather, the flowers take about a fortnight to become fully 

 expanded. 



The herb of the second and third year (for the same plants 

 rarely yield a fourth crop on the same land) is cut with scythes 

 and then raked by women into loose heaps ready for carting. A 

 group of boys then follow and glean the stems which have escaped 

 the scythe, and add what they collect to the heaps. The herb is 

 then carted to the stillery. In the Lincolnshire plantations there 

 are several stills of 7 or 8 feet in height and 5 feet in diameter, 

 holding about 5 cwts. each of herb. A perforated false bottom, 

 fitted with a large hook in the centre, rests in it about 2 feet from 

 the bottom of the still and enough w^ater is poured in to cover the 

 false bottom about 2 feet. The still is then filled up wdth the 

 herli, which is trodden in by men. The lid is then placed on and 

 fastened down with two transverse bars. As the lid fits into a 

 water-joint, any excess of temperature and pressure is at once 

 noticed by the water being jerked out of the water-joint. Direct 

 heat is applied instead of superheated steam, and the oil is distilled 

 at as low a temperature as possible. The distillation is continued 

 for about four-and-a-half hours (by reason of the irrational method 

 of conducting the operation) ; the lid is then removed, and a rope 

 being attached to the hook on the false bottom, the whole of the 

 herb is raised bodily out of the still by means of a windlass and is 

 taken away to the fields in the empty carts on their return journey. 

 The spent herb is then left in heaps in the corner of the fields, and 



