1872. ] 
ON CURING AND STORING POT-HERBS. 
159 
This system, however, did not quite answer my purpose, and I simply picked 
the leaves and tops, and when they had been highly dried, I preserved them in 
tin canisters, just as the tea-dealer preserves his Tea. Now if anyone will examine 
the leaves of the Tea plant, in a teapot, he will see of what simple materials the 
finely curled crisp Tea of the Chinese is made up, and will soon feel convinced that 
the Celestials are far ahead of us in the way of drying their tea-leaves. Many 
of our own herbs of the class of native bittets, such as Chamomile, Wormwood, 
Ilorehound, Water Trefoil, and the like, are worthy of a better fate than to be 
hung in wisps in some outhouse till they are wanted. 
Stretford, a township just outside the parish of Manchester, is famed for its 
Black puddings, and the chief merit of the different “ makes ” consists in the 
herbs used to flavour them; and as herbs used as Tea, such as Ground Ivy, should 
certainly be kept clean and free from dust, so the Pennyroyal used for Stretford 
black puddings should unquestionably be taken some care of. The housewife 
dries her Lavender-spikes with due care and cleanliness, and well she may, for 
they are to scent the clotlies-drawer. The picking, drying, and packing of Hops 
leave nothing to be desired ; they are therefore a pattern to all persons having 
to cure or preserve herbs. There is no bunching of useless stalks in hop-drying, 
for the u bine ” is burnt in the field, whilst the marketable Hops are gathered 
into barns, kiln-dried over clear fires, or dried by radiant heat from open fires, and 
then, lest their virtues should be lost by exposure to air, they are tightly packed 
into a particular kind of canvas bag, so tight indeed that we wonder how such 
materials could ever be crammed into so small a compass. It was no doubt from 
the practice of Hop-pressing that Mr. Lindsay took his idea of pressing herb- 
leaves. If I can only succeed, by referring to the above practical examples, 
in inducing people to pick the leaves and tops of Pot-herbs, and fling away 
the stalks, then either to dry the leaves in a cool oven or in a “ hastener ” 
before the fire, and when dry to treat them to a canister like Tea, marking 
the name of the herb and the month and year it was preserved, they may 
be surprised to find that many herbs will thus keep good and fragrant for 
several years. We generally see in the grocers’ window the announce¬ 
ment, “ New Season’s Tea,” and we read in the newspapers of ships racing 
homeward-bound with the first arrivals of the new season’s tea; but 
beyond this, there is no notice taken of the age of the tea that our evening meal 
is made from; and that which my tea-caddie holds now, and of which a 
decoction was duly served up to all hands only an hour ago, may, for aught we 
know, be in its seventh season. Coffined in lead, as it always is, there seems 
little change in this highly dried herb for years. 
If the canistering system were once adopted, the cook could be supplied with 
a canister of preserved pot-herbs from the garden as required, and he could then 
help himself ad lib ., without troubling the gardener for driblets. The price of 
the Basil above mentioned was exorbitant, and the preservation was abominable. 
It is, therefore, high time to call attention to this subject, by no means an 
