Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 September 1881 — The Peppermint Crop. [ARTICLE]

The Peppermint Crop.

The peppermint crop of the United States has for the past few years reached the amount of 70,000 pounds per year, of which about 30,000 pounds were annually exported. Two-thirds of the peppermint oil of this country is produced in New York, and about one-third in Michigan. The best oil comes from Wayne county, New York, where it is carefully prepared by a man named Hotchkiss, whose name it bears, and usually brings 20 cents more than the common. The plant is a perennial one and is planted in the spring. The next year it is ready for cutting and generally may be cut for three years. The best yield is given in the first and second years of cutting; in the third year the plant becomes bitetr. After the plant becomes four years *>ld it is not cut, and the field is plowed over and a new crop planted. The usual method of planting is in rows, and in August the plant is ready for cutting.