THE HERB HARVEST

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2963, 29 December 1916, Page 8

THE HERB HARVEST

CHILDREN HELP TO CAI'TUHE n\i)uSTui i'llOiu HUiSK.

Tho "Daily Mail" of October 28 says:—The lierb harvest of liinglaml has produced a yield of many tons lor the National Herb Growing Association. At its storehouse iu Queen Anne's 'Chambers, S.W., thero arc bursting bags of foxglove leaves, heaped crates of poppyheads, and bulging sacks of cquisetum (Horse-tail), and smaller quantities of the still scarce belladonna root. In all 50 or 60 different kinds of herbs are represented. Tlfis harvest of the searchers among England's woods and fields—some comes, of course, from cultivated "herb gardens—has arrived in hat boxes, tin trunks, packing cases —even in piano crates in one or two instances. Parcels have ranged from lib.' upwards. At tho storehouse all tho varietiesjiave boon sorted and graded and mafle up into marketable packages, and large quantities have been sold to buyers who formerly had to look to Germany for supplies. _ One party of children in Hertfordshire collected nearly half a ton of herbs.

Dandelion roots are noiv being gathered. The association has orders for many_ tons. The dried root is used medicinally, and a palatable brew of "coffee" is mado from it in some parts of the country.