Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1907-11-09

crop of the Wolverine State. In Der,
rien County alone there Is now being
harvested and hauled to the distillery
| somewhere between two thousand
and twenty-five hundred acres pro-
duction of peppermint plant. The
cause OF the anxiety Is the low price
| 1t Is now so low that some of the
producers claim that no great amount
of money is made in growing it. Great
last year in the hope that an advance
would come. One grower is said to
be holding 1900 pounds, another
1000 pounds, and others have not
sold their crop of last year, still hold
ing it for better prices.
All of this is in face of the fact
that uses of mint oil are multiplying,
and there is an increased demand
for the uses to which it has been APP
piled in the past In late years there
has been a falling off of the crop,
due to unfavorable weather and other
conditions. The surplus oil always
has been exported, but exports have
fallen Off because OF the competition
of Japanese growers, who produce a
much inferior article.
This country annually produces in
the neighborhood of 100000 pounds
of oil. Three-fourths of this guam
tity is distilled in Southern Michigan,
which has become the centre of sup
ply. Wayne County, N. Y, once held
this distinction, but 1t surrendered
to Berrien and other counties Of
Michigan long ago. Up to this time
the best offers that have come to
any of the growers this season are
about $40 pound. In other years
the price has gone to SO and beyond.
1t has been down as low as seventy
five cents.
Despite the uncertainty as to the
future worth of oil, the acreage has
held its own, if it has not increased.
There are a good many reasons for
this, the principal one being that
drainage operations have reclaimed
great tracts of land that are particu-
larly we'll adapted to the growth of
mint. The other day 1 passed over
a farm of two thousand acres near
Three oaks, in Berrien County. Of
this big tract of land four hundred
acres had been planted in mint and
harvesting and distilling were then
in progress. Through this magnifi-
cent farm had been dug an immense
drainage canal that had saved thou
sands of acres of the finest muck land
in the State. This canal was six miles
long. 1t was at least thirty feet
across the top and from ten to fifteen
feet deep. On the bank of this canal
had been constructed one of the larg-
est mint distilleries of the mint re-
gion. The water in the canal fur
nished all of the requirements for
steam and cooling purposes, and this
distillery had a capacity of from
eight to thirteen forty-pound cans of
oil a day.
Other reasons for increased acre
age are that new and improved ma
chinery and implements for distilla-
ton and cultivation have come into
use, so that crops may be handled
more easily and speedily. Then the
growers have been educating them
selves as to the different new uses
to which mint oil is put. They are
banking on the fact that the Michigan
oil is the finest that can be produced,
and that there must be an increased
demand and that prices finally will
rise.
The weather for this years crop Of
mint was not good. 1t was too wet,
and an immense amount of labor was
required to keep the weeds out of
the new patches. 1t was simply i'm
possible to weed out the old patches,
and to-day the weeds go into the watts
along with the mint, except that
which comes from the new patches
Until last year mint was planted
in the spring, but recently a young
woman grower who had forty acres in
mint adopted and is now carrying out
a new plan. She plants in the fall.
Her farm is well protected by Lake
Michigan. She argues that it is
much easier to smooth over the land
in October than in March. OF course,
she runs the risk of the plant being
frozen, but up to this time she has
profited by fall planting. 1t must be
understood that only little planting
is done each year, for the old plants
continue to produce annually, but the
production of oil is less with each
ensuing year, so that finally its pro-
duction is too low to allow it to stand.
AS the old patches give out new ones
are planted.
The land on which mint is grown
is black. 1t is prepared for mint just
as ground for potato patch is pre-
pared. A hand passes along in the
furrow carrying over his shoulder a
sack in which are the long stalks of
mint plant. These are dropped one
at a time lengthwise in the furrow,
the ends overlapping, so that there is
a continuous row of plants from one
end of the furrow to the other. The
modern way of covering is by the use
of a pillow, but a good many grow
ers cover the plants with their feet,
tramp them down in the soft black
loan and cover them as they pass
along. The shoots on the stem are
about two inches from each other,
and in due course of time these shoots
take hold in the ground and begin
to send up spears. In the fall-planted
mint the plants lie dormant through
the winter. In early spring the shoots
begin to show, closely resembling wa
tercress. At first it grows slow, but
after the middle of June the progress
is rapid. The new mint has to be
hoed and weeded once a week. 1t
blooms in August and September.
The first year it is cut with a scythe.
A man goes up one side of row and
back on the other. After the second
year, the burrows are so levelled
down that the cutter of an ordinary
moving machine is able to get hold
of the stems, and from that on the
cutfing "a dOna nv tho machine AZ