400 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



that a factor.v may olfei' Iarj;e prices for beets and extra inducements 

 for ])atrt)nau(' and yet even np matters by fixin<^ u])()n a marc of 10% 

 or IL'%. Dr. Wiley, at the ''Konnd-uj)" of Farmerfs' Institutes at Ann 

 Arbor, said that ''any mare on sui>ar beets beyond i)% was robbery." 



THE ESSKXTJAL OIL INDUSTRY OP MICHIGAN. 



HON. ALBERT M. TODD. 



The essential oil industry of the United States is confined mostly 

 within the limits of the State of Michigan, and to the production of oil 

 of peppermint almost entirely, althouj;h other essential oils are dis- 

 tilled in a suuiller way and to a slight extent in other states. Pep- 

 permint 7»robably represents in value 90 per cent of all the essential 

 oils combined produced in this country'; hence this sketch will be de- 

 Toted mostly to that jflant alone. 



The first printed mention of peppermint is found in "Ray's Historia 

 Plantarum," published nearly three centuries ago, the plant being men- 

 tioned onlj' as used in the dry state for medicinal purposes. The culti- 

 ration of pep])ermint and the distillation therefrom of an aromatic 

 oil was begun first in a very small way in Mitcham, England, a hun- 

 dred and fifty years ago, about twenty-five miles southwest of London. 

 The beginning was exceedingy crude, the plants being placed in a little 

 copper receptacle filled with water, over which a cover was fitted with 

 clay, so that the steam should only escape through the opening made 

 for the purpose, from which a pipe started, which passed through cold 

 water by which the stt^am was condensed which contained the oil. The 

 industry does not appear, however, to have developed very rapidly, 

 as there was scarcely more than one thousand pounds of the oil dis- 

 tilled annually fifty years later, and it was not until its introduction 

 into America, which occurred early in the present century, that distil- 

 leries in any commercial way were first erected in the State of New 

 York. 



The peppermint industry appears to have been founded in Michigan 

 about 1835 and the plant was grown slightly in Ohio at the time, these 

 two states and New York being the only states in which the culture has 

 been undertaken in any commercial way until perhaps twenty years ago, 

 when it spread to some of the northern counties of Indiana, near the 

 Michigan line. 



It is a matter in which the people of Michigan feel a just pride that 

 the soil and climate of our State, probably affected by the salutary 

 influences of the great lakes, as well as the progress and industry of 

 her citizens, have enabled us not only to take the foremost place, but 

 actually to make the industry in the State of New York, which for about 

 fifty years held the chief place, a thing of the past. Whereas, fifty 

 years ago three-fourths of the peppermint of the country was grown 

 in New York, now less than ten per cent is produced there, while nearly, 

 if not quite, seventy-five per cent is produced in Michigan, and the re- 

 mainder in northern Indiana, joining our own producing district. 



