Peppermint

Peppermint cultivation is most profitable on muck lands, such as are now used in Michigan for this crop and for celery and cranberry culture. These muck lands were formerly marshes and swamps, which have been reclaimed by draining, plowing, and cultivating, the swamp vegetation having been thus subdued, and the decayed vegetable matter resulting in a very black soil which is most admirably adapted to mint cultivation. Formerly peppermint was grown exclusively on upland soil in Michigan, but it is a very exhausting crop on such land. Only two crops can be obtained from upland plantations, and after the second year’s harvest the land is plowed and a rotation of clover, corn, etc., is practiced for five years before peppermint is again planted. But on the rich muck land peppermint can be grown year after year for six or seven years, the land being plowed up after each crop is harvested, and the runners turned under to form a new growth the succeeding year. The ground is harrowed in autumn and again in spring, and carefully weeded. Peppermint will grow, however, on any land that will produce good crops of corn, the ground being prepared by deep plowing and harrowing.

In Michigan[4] the land is plowed in the autumn, and early in spring it is harrowed and marked with furrows about 3 feet apart. The roots selected for planting are from one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch thick, and from 1 to 3 feet long; and the workmen engaged in “setting mint,” as the process is called, carry these roots in sacks across their shoulders and place them in the furrows by hand, covering the roots with one foot and stepping on them with the other. The roots are planted so close together in the furrow as to form a continuous line. An expert workman can plant about an acre in a day.

In about two weeks the young plants will make their appearance, and are carefully hoed and cultivated until July and August, when the plants have usually sent out so many runners as to make further cultivation difficult. The crop is cultivated with horse cultivators, but if the land was very weedy in the first place, the weeds will have to be pulled by hand. It is very necessary that the land be free from weeds, as any collected with the peppermint crop will seriously injure the quality of the oil.

It may be interesting to note here that on muck lands, when necessary, the horses are usually provided with mud shoes to prevent their sinking into the soft, wet ground, these mud shoes consisting of wide pieces of iron or wood about 9 by 10 inches, fastened to the hoofs and ordinary shoes by means of bolts and straps.

CONDITIONS INJURIOUS TO CROP.

Cold and wet weather or extremely dry periods have a very unfavorable effect on the mint crop. Insect enemies also tend to cut down the mint harvest—grasshoppers, crickets, and cutworms sometimes doing considerable damage. A rust, causing the foliage to drop off and leaving the stems almost bare, is apt to follow if very moist weather occurs toward the latter part of the season. Weeds are especially to be avoided in a mint field, since, as stated, the quality of the oil will be seriously impaired if these are harvested with the peppermint. The weeds generally found in a peppermint field are Canada fleabane (Leptilon canadense), fireweed (Erechtites hieracifolia), giant ragweed (Ambrosia trifida), pennyroyal (Hedeoma pulegioides), Eaton’s grass (Eatonia pennsylvanica), June grass (Poa pratensis), and other low grasses.