240 
PEPPERMINT, ITS CULTIVATION AND PRODUCE. 
two rows are missed or left out for the allies the following year. 
The described tool is drawn up and down the land, marking the true 
position of the rows ; the first year the allies are not thrown out. 
The planting is begun when the plants are about four or five 
inches high, according to the season, which is in April. The 
plants are the skimmings of old beds where they rise above four or 
five stems, or from old beds intended to be destroyed, or are pur- 
chased by the bushel. They vary very much in price, according 
to the previous season ; about five shillings commonly, but some- 
times from three shillings to twenty shillings. Although last win- 
ter was mild, they were very scarce, owing to the previous dry 
summer, which killed many of the old plants. The older the plants, 
the more oil they produce, in proportion to the bulk of stems. The 
first year the beds require hoeing five or six times, at an expense of 
six shillings per acre. The second year, at the approach of win- 
ter, the allies are thrown out to cover the mint, about two inches 
deep, for which the men are paid eighteen shillings per acre ; if 
manured, three shillings more for spreading. The soil lays rough 
until the beginning of March, when it is harrowed down with light 
harrows, after which the beds are thinned for future beds, leaving 
about four or five to each stole, according to strength. Then fol- 
lows dotting ; that is, a man going over the beds, and pecking out 
the weeds with the corner of a hoe, and throwing them into the 
allies. For this he is paid four shillings per acre. From this 
time, until the mint is fit to cut, it is hoed about four times, at six 
shillings per acre. I omitted to say that the first planting cost 
twenty-one shillings per acre for labor. The third year is the 
same as the second, but the allies then becoming so deep and wide, 
occasion such an encroachment on the beds, that they are destroy- 
ed for other crops, but are frequently ploughed in for future plants 
the next spring, when they are entirely destroyed. Cutting begins 
when the mint is well in flower. The men are paid twelve shil- 
lings per acre for cutting. Their business is to cut the plant and 
lay it in Prussian mats (which are less than the Russian) in bun- 
dles weighing 1 cwt. each, in which, if the weather be wet, it is 
skewered up and taken to the still at once, as the rain occasions a 
great loss of oil. But should the weather be favorable, it is dried 
in the field, for reasons to be explained. 
The stills commonly hold a ton ; that is, twenty bundles of green 
