MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 175 



one, then, of small acreage, but of placing it on a basis to compete with the 

 lower cost of labor in India. In fact, even iit the present time the oil crushing 

 interests of the United States have taken steps to see that the government 

 develops a post-war policy which will not place the American crushers at a 

 serious disadvantage. 



With the advent of every new problem there are fortunately a few who 

 are willing to venture and to have faith in their experiments, but there are 

 also a great many good intentioned people who are unable to see what has 

 not as yet been demonstrated. Many of them are like the man who sees the 

 forest at a distance ; to him it seems like an adamantine wall, and unfortu- 

 nately, he never gets close enough to see the path which lies between the 

 individual trees. It is the man who gets right down to the problem that sees 

 the light and makes the clearing and does something for humanity. It reminds 

 one of the days of Watt, when he was introducing the steam engine ; some 

 one suggested : "What if a cow should get on the track?" To this he serenely 

 replied. "It would be bad for the cow." In addition to some of the olijections 

 already pointed out, there are those who fear that there is sure to be an 

 over-production of some one crop, and that this will be followed by a lot of 

 attending evils. The man who is intelligent enough to farm medicinal plants 

 is likely to possess sound judgment. The farmer who is growing a hundred 

 acres of corn today is not likely to plant another hundred in sweet marjoram, 

 or dill, or some other crop which is used as a pot herb. In other words, these 

 matters will all right themselves, and possibly even new industries may 

 develop as a result of this over-production. The fact is, if we can get the 

 pioneer on the soil of oi>portunity, he will develop it to its utmost. Possibly 

 it might be well at this time to give the real story of the origin of the pepper- 

 mint industry in the United States, which is not generally known. About 

 seventy-five years ago there was a Yankee peddler named Burnett who went 

 through the country districts of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and por- 

 tions of New York. He peddled tin pans, rugs, chromes and other things that 

 the housewives on the farms very much coveted. The women had not a great 

 deal of money, so he hit upon a scheme of exchanging herbs in lieu of money 

 for his merchandise. When you think of it, you will see that, though unlet- 

 tered and untutored, he understood all of the arts of the salesman, and was 

 more than a merchant, being something of a financier. He realized that herbs 

 were good collateral and had their standard market value. Anything which 

 can be marketed is money. You will perhaps recall that black pepper and 

 the other spices were used as money at one time. In the course of his travels 

 he secured large quantities of peppermint. It occurred to him that he might 

 distill the oil, and so he constructed numerous stills, especially in Wayne 

 county, New York. He then gave up his peddling business and occupied him- 

 self in collecting and distilling the mint and selling the oil to the country 

 dealers. 



