. Cyclopedia of farm crops, a popular survey of crops and crop-making methods in the United States and Canada;. Farm produce; Agriculture. 464 MEDICINAL PLANTS MEDICINAL PLANTS. Fig. 689. Peppermint {Mentha piperita). Perhaps 2,000 pounds will cover the amount of English and German peppermint oil distilled yearly. These countries import most of their oil from the United States. Michigan, northern Indiana and Wayne county. New York, are the most important regions. The Japanese pep- permint oils are obtained from a different botanical source, Mentha arvensis piper- ascens, Malinvaud, and Mentha
. Cyclopedia of farm crops, a popular survey of crops and crop-making methods in the United States and Canada;. Farm produce; Agriculture. 464 MEDICINAL PLANTS MEDICINAL PLANTS. Fig. 689. Peppermint {Mentha piperita). Perhaps 2,000 pounds will cover the amount of English and German peppermint oil distilled yearly. These countries import most of their oil from the United States. Michigan, northern Indiana and Wayne county. New York, are the most important regions. The Japanese pep- permint oils are obtained from a different botanical source, Mentha arvensis piper- ascens, Malinvaud, and Mentha arvensis glabrata, Holmes. Peppermint - culture i s practiced in Michigan on black muck land, obtained by the draining of swamps and marshes, after it has been thoroughly subdued by previous cropping. After fall-plowing, the land to be used for peppermint is har- rowed in the early spring and provided with furrows about three feet apart, into which the slender roots are thrown so as to make an un- broken row of plants. The soil is drawn over the roots and made firm by treading. The young plants. are care- fully hoed during the first season to remove weeds which injure the crop, partly by contaminating the oil. By fall the peppermint runners so nearly cover the ground as to interfere with further use of the hoe. Horse cultivation may be made use of until fall, when the runners will practically cover the ground. In August or early September, when in full bloom, the herb is mowed usually with a scythe, dried until only enough moisture remains to pre- vent the falling of the leaves, and hauled to the distillery. The distilling apparatus consists essen- tially of a boiler from which live steam is obtained; large circular wooden vats connected with the boiler, into which the herb is thrown for steam treatment; a condenser, consisting of a tight tube surrounded by cold water, through which the va- pors from the wooden vats are conducted and cooled; and a receiver into which the conden
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