PARIS DEMANDS 90,000 POUNDS OF SNAILS A DAY.

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 January 1903, Page 4

PARIS DEMANDS 90,000 POUNDS OF SNAILS A DAY.

The popularity of the snail as an article of food is not confined to Paris, but extends throughout southern Europe, and some parts of Africa. Ninety thousand pounds of snails are sent daily to Paris from the gardens at Poitou, Burgundy, Champagne and Provence. Those reared in gardens are fed on aromatic herbs to improve their flavour. Their market price is from two to three francs a hundred (a franc equals lOd. in our money), while those from the hedge t, woods, and forests bring somewhat less. The proprietor of one snaillery in the vicinity of Dijon nets over 7,000 francs annually. The snail is reared and faPened with great care in some cantons of Switzerland as an article of luxury, and is exported in a pickled state. It is also eaten as a relish and a nutritious article of food in Austria, Spain, Italy, and in some sections of the United States. They smoke them and eat them as daily food all the year round. In Algeria, in the markets, large heaps of snails Jarejsold by tha bushel, and the hundred as an article of food. Vendors hawk them in the streets of Cairo. In modern Borne fresh-gathered snails are hawked by women from door to door.