MAKE A PAIR OF BRUSH-BUSTER BRITCHES

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You can beat the thorny problems that go with summer berry picking. . . for less than $3.00.

In late summer and early autumn, giant succulent blackberries—suspended tantalizingly from thorny canes—lure me into the bristly thickets near my Wisconsin home. And at the end of each expedition I used to crawl out of the prickly patches, clutching both my hard-earned half-bucket of berries and two thorn-scarred legs that looked as if I'd meandered into the midst of an inprogress cat fight!

I first tried to thwart the bushes by donning three pairs of trousers to protect my vulnerable shins . . . but the weight and heat of those leggings proved to be almost as unbearable as the prickly thorns. Furthermore, the layers of clothing became particularly uncomfortable in the early morning dew . . . and I soon found that few things take the joy out of woods-roaming more thoroughly than creeping around in three pairs of soggy drawers.

Soon thereafter, though—quite by accident—I finally discovered the solution that now allows me to tramp unscathed through the thickest of blackberry brambles. It all started when a pair of my well-worn blue jeans developed a severe tear during an unexpected encounter with a barbed wire fence. Rather than sew up the laceration, I temporarily glued a patch over it with some fabric cement. To my amazement, the repair stayed on as if it'd grown there . . . and even repeated trips through the washing machine and clothes dryer failed to dislodge the stubborn mend. With some curiosity, then, I examined the patch . . . and saw that the adhesive had completely penetrated the fabric, making the material both water proof and extremely tough.

"Aha," I reasoned, "if I coat the front of my jeans with the rubbery substance, I'll have a durable and inexpensive pair of berry-picking pants!" So I applied some more fabric cement to my old dungarees, and found to my delight that the covering repelled the sharpest thorns and even helped keep me dry while I walked through rain-soaked thickets.

Since my first experiment, I've refined the technique that transforms ordinary denims into brush-buster britches. The only items required are an old pair of pants (jeans work best, but any trousers made of a heavy material will do), some newspaper, and a sixounce bottle of fabric cement. There are several brands of the adhesive on the market, but I prefer Val-A Tehr-Greeze, which is available for about $2.40 a bottle at most hardware stores, canvas and awning supply shops, and shoe repair services.

To construct a pair of brush-busters yourself, assemble the materials and then spread newspaper over your work surface. (I usually use the floor for this operation, but a wide table would also suffice.) The next step is extremely important: Place several thick folds of newspaper inside the pant legs to prevent the cement from bonding the layers of cloth together. [EDITOR'S NOTE: A spokesman for the Val-A Company, manufacturer of Tehr-Greeze, concurred with the author's instructions, saying that the latexbased product is an exceptionally aggressive bonder for which there is no known solvent. Persons who use Tehr-Greeze should be careful not to spill the fabric cement on the floor or to apply it to any garment they may later wish to restore to its original condition, since the substance simply can't be removed.]

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