The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-08-16
DtE TO YANKEE SIREN DNESS
start Of the Peppermint Crop That Has
Given Wayne County &2O. 600. 900.

Given Wayne County $50, OOO, 600.
"The way Wayne county, n. Y. came to
be- the worlds centre for the peppermint
CROP said F, W. Jones, native Of that
county, "ought to make an interesting
supplement to THE Suns story Of that
unique agricultural belt, That crop has
returned to Wayne county up to date not
less than $4,000 900, and Yankee ped
ler's shrewdness in looking out for bar
gains began it all
THAT pedler lived in Massachusetts,.
and his name was jim Burnett. Sixty
years ago the travelling pedler was de-
pended upon largely by remote rural
dwellers for many Of the things they now
find at convenient stores, and jim Burnett
was perhaps one of the best known Of these
merchants, az his range was wide and
his stock most comprehensive. Besides
peddling his wares he was constantly on
the lookout for some little speculation or
bargain he could see a dollars gain i'll.
He knew the peppermint plant, for it
grew wild In scattered spots In Massa-
chusetts and some thrifty farmers there
had gathered it and in rude way distilled
the oil from it, the local sale Of which added
few dollars annually to their meagre farm
receipts. Jim Burnett had frequently
turned an honest penny by dickering with
| the farmers for this oil. On one OF his
| trips into Wayne county he discovered the
peppermint plant growing wild there and
in great abundance. This was sixty-fve
| years ago.
Burnett quietly went to work gathering
hA ali l Isatt linz hA nil Hn III
I this for several years before it occurred to
/ the Wayne county farmers that they might
! be utilizing to their own profit this product
. Of their fields and roadsides.
J Then they ruled Burnett out, and began
the harvesting Of the peppermint crop
themselves and distilling the oil. The
business didn't amount to much, though,
until 1874, and then something else hap
pened.
an that year H. G. Hotchkiss was keeping
little country store at Phelps, Ontario
county, near the Wayne county line, and
in the peppermint belt In the course of
his dealings with the farmers he had taken
their peppermint oil In payment for goods
until he had on hand so much OF 1t that he
would lose money if he could not dispose
of the lot for 900.
"Hotchkiss saw that his only hope to do
that was to bring it as revelation to the
general market that there was a locality
in this country where peppermint oil could
be produced in quantities, and then to
depend on the quality Of the oil to make
it standard product.
With that object in view. he came to
New York with samples Of his oil in her
metically sealed tin cans. The dealers
here were surprised TO learn that there
was such an important peppermint industry
so nearby, but they wouldn't buy the oil,
because they said it could not be pure,
nd hot ~ 70 it,t mt
locally grown plant could produce oil to
compare with the oils Of China and Japan.
"Hotchkiss took his oil back to Phelps.
He submitted it to a complete chemical
analysis, and found that it was absolutely
pure. The now old-fashioned twenty-one-
ounce, Ip-mouthed earthen ink bottles
had just came into use then, and the nov
city of them gave Hotchkiss an idea. He
purchased a lot Of those bottles, turned
his oil into them from the tin cans, her
medically sealed them, and placed on each
bottle this label:
" Peppermint Oil, from Wayne county,
New York, U. S. A. Guaranteed Pure
by II. G. Hotchkiss
Hamburg, Germany, being the centre
for the sale and distribution Of essential
oils. Hotchltiss consigned his oil to a house
in that city, naming his price for It II the
goods were accepted Some months after
that he received draft for the amount he
nau asked lot Uuo OH auu hu OrueT from
the house for another consignment, with
the information that the original consign-
ment had been sold to dealers In New York
city, among whom were the ones who had
refused to touch the oil when Hotchkiss
had offered it to them. That shipment Of
Wayne county peppermint oil to Germany
established it as the standard in the market
"Hotchkiss, the father OF the American
peppermint oil industry. gave up all his
other business and became q grower and
distiller of peppermint oil on such an ex-
tensive scale that he became known the
world over as the Peppermint King. He
died few years ago millionaire. his en-
tire fortune having been made from pepper
mint oil Peppermint oil put up in the
Hotchkiss lip-mouthed bottles is to this
day the worlds standard"