Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-26


less powder. used by the army and
navy. and If Japan cuts off our supply
she might handicap us seriously IN
case of war.
The bureau of plant industry has IN
Vestigated the matter and reached tne
conclusion that camphor can be grown
In the southern part of the Unlted
States A three thousand acre tract or
Florida land has been acquired by the
government and will be set out in
camphor trees. In Japan it has always
been the custom to allow the trees to
grow to maturity and then cut them
down, distilling the camphor from the
logs. In Florida and Texas the gov
eminent will plant them very close to-
gether, and when the shrubs reach a
height of about three feet they Will
be cut down with a moving machine
and taken to the distillery. A new
crop will follow in short order.
Peppermint culture is one of the most
interesting of the small-crop operations.
Michigan is the center of the pepper
mint growing region, and the soil where
il is grown is so mucky that the horses
have to be fitted with large wooden
shoes before they can work on it. The
cost of cultivation is about $14 an acre,
and the profit from SIS to $50. One
farmer has about 10000 acres of land
devoted to the growing of peppermint,
which is the largest farm of its kind
in the world. He keeps about 500 short
horn beef cattle, feeding them pepper
mint hay in the winter, which they eat
with great relish when the oil has been
pressed from it.
In 1874 several enterprising New York
ers concluded they could corner the
peppermint oil market. They sent a
representative to England to find out
how much oil was needed to supply the
demand, which was about $4,000 pounds
a year. Then they went to the New
York producers and the Ohio growers
and paid them not to cultivate pepper
mint for five years. After this they
bought the entire product of Michigan
at price mutually agreed upon. Then
they sold peppermint oil at their own
price. After three years some of the
Ohio and New York growers, seeing
how prices had advanced, concluded
that they would break their contracts.
The peppermint oil trust did not at
tempt to prevent their doing so, having
made a profit large enough to satisfy
its greed.
The growing of mushrooms is one of
the most profitable occupations in the
world-if the grower thoroughly knows
his business. The prices range from rs
cents a pound to $3.50. The majority
of growers of mushrooms have less than
a thousand square feet of beds, but
they make more out of these than the
average farmer makes from 200-acre
farm. There is perhaps no other crop
in the United States or Canada which
can be grown with such profit where
the conditions are favorable. 1t is said
that the cave region of the Shenandoah
valley and the Blue Grass region Of
Kentucky offer splendid opportunities
for mushroom culture caves being
ideal growing places for fungi.
Castor bean culture is quite a profit
able little industry in some parts of
the south. 1t is from these beans that
castor oil is made. Okra or gumbo is
also grown with profit in the south.
Experiments have been made in cross
ing the sand cherry with plums. and
the indications are that the new hybrid
will make a valuable acquisition to the
small fruit garden. Horticulturists re-
gard the sand cherry as the most prom
Using of all the native undeveloped
fruits. The juneberry is another native
which science is trying to domesticate.
Mankind at large is fond of the buckle
berry, and many attempts have been
made to persuade it to forsake its abid-
ing place in the woods and mountains
for the fields of civilization, but it has
spurned every attempt of the plant
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