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About The Oregon statesman. (Salem, Or.) 1916-1980 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 8, 1927)
Continuation of the Slogan ' Page : Siibjiecl Rt ::lndiuistEry t 1 4 THE LARGEST II 01STRICT -IN THE STATE, IN UBISU SECTION fter Much Experimenting, The Growers Around Brooks Have Found the Best Methods Labor Figures Less in "&e Mint Croo Than in Most of Other Crons Raised on the Callable Land There 'V ; i i V'.Aitnr Rtn tTnnTi I f The unusual high price paid for f mint nfl wan teo. wall directly D-'liWOMihle for stimulation of T ruts industry which although be- -st1 arouna ivw on lae ww iauus this country, .had up to then ? been' but partly successful. Complete crop failures in the I large areas given over exclusive- ;;ly to mint raisin? and from whence the bulk of the oilv con sumed throughout the country Is 5 obtained, caused unheard of prices f to bi offered for the essence; and f thost who had held on year after year, although often at a toss, reaped the benefit. j As is usual in such cases, other frops were replaced with acres of V, mint, and now . as the prices are I about normal there is not theLprof . f it obtained from the valuable land f given over to Its culture that some . other crops might give. A few I were fortunate enough to have '. contracts, however, and those still hare a good thing. Is Easy to Raise Mint Is a comparatively easy crop to raise: the 1 one requisite being cool, mois ground. The roots, dropped in shallow fur rows, readily take hold and spread rapidly. They may be cut the first year, though the plants will their best until the sec- which tests much higher in this district than the average. A great deal of the mint oil goes Into the manufacture of chewing gum, that great American institution, while confections and drugs come In for their share. As a little bit of this essence goes a long way. It is easy to overload the market, while on the other hand, as it is raised In few localities, a little bad, luck would again make prices soar. CECIL VERE ASIIBAUGH. Brooks, Ore.. Dec. 5, 1927. I I, rJSt bo at Qftd year. Once a good stand is cured, the crop may be harvest- $Ji year after year. The lowlands tirR9Ani nn A aerlnna diaa.dvanta.Ei 1 if t n mnv rrnn that mav ht rlTnn them, namely, the rapid and lux urious growth of weeds and grass es that are also native to this -:i oii. Present Approved Methods To combat this, it is found that cultivation, which, seeming to des troy much of the cultivated crop, really in the long run. aids Its growth and keeps down the vag rant growths. Those who have tried both methods, find that in a few seasons the grasses and weeds will eventually crowd out the mint j- crop ana mate me nay, or cut r it, of such poor Quality that tre Is no money In handling it. The better method, and the one that is being adopted by those who have made a study of mint, is to keep the crop in well defined rows 'where small plpws are used for the cultivation. . Another method, and ore that has proved its worth, is tr clip off the tops by mowing or before the mint has height. This has two I f V V ' 4-Ite early, .f Cached its - iSstfrtCiMUmes; it helps , kJUlutt-aftit'- " acres to become a green i back the weiDud tends to make a thicker growth to the mint 1 plants. The season Just past was t a very poor one for the harvesting of the cron. Earlv rains wet the ground so thoroughly that it was difficult to dry. the cut mint and , much of It was put through the stills practically green. Authori al' ties claim that by so doing, some L 90 Per cent of the oil was lost. Two By-Products Besides the oil there are two $ other products or by-products that J are obtained from the crop. One r: is the hay or refuse after the oil is I stilled. This makes a very good 1 forage, and animals seems to eat PIONEER GROWER CUIUS SECT! G. J. Moisan Tells of Diffi culties In Starting In the Business Editor Statesman During the spring of 1913 I con tracted . for mint roots from a grower near Albany, Oregon. These were the first; mint roots that came near Gervais. S. D. Manning. John Kuschnick and Fred Manning took these roots and planted them on a basis of 50 50 for oil and roots.; The roots were badly damaged I on account of being dug and sacked long be fore they were planted, and fro'm these roots and from the plantings and acreage that have come from them, the first three years of growing mint here wae discourag ing. Then the world war came on and mint growing was neglect ed, some plowing their fields up to grow food stuff. After the War After the war "was over S. D. Manning and Fred Manning picked up roots from ditches, fence lines and anywhere they could getj sprouts and started ; new fields. In 1919 they had a sufficient amount of roots to , plant many acres, which was divided among many growers, from three to five acres each. S. D. I Manning and myself planted this year (1919), 40 acres on the Hayes estats, three miles east, of Brooks. The epring was late, and after plant ing we waited for the rows to be risible before cultivating. In experienced, In the growine cultivating! ' we allowed MINT HARVEST SCENES i i On a comparatively small acre age, largely In marshy lands of Micmgan and Indiana, is grown the mine from which comes the nation's peppermint supply, used in dentriflces, drugs, candy and gum. .Accompanying are a mlfft field and a load of mint ready for distilling a still for extracting the oil. A- 1 ' I' w 'A , -.--VK . I-, -J', v.-.-.v.-.-. ,'. .-. .--7- ;:'.-.A:., ' 1 f z if ! 2 i - i V If we plowed late, about May 1, and did not rake or roll for about 10 days after being plowed and con sequently all roots died, owing to the fact that the ground when plowed was left, loose and air pockets dried all roots before we packed the ground. With all this practical experi ence, we are in a good way to advise any new grower. Now Growing Successfully We are now growing mint suc cessfully; have found out the best tools to work with and the best time to work the mint. There is so reason why the grow ing: of mint cannot, even on small acreage, be as profitable as any other commodity grown in the valley, We bar speculators, but if a man who grows mint will sell when there is a profit, he wm nave little trouble and ex-; pense after his oil is distilled. G. J. MOJSAN. Gervais, -Or., Dec. 3, 1927. (Mr. Moisan, pioneer, mint grower In the largest mint grow ing section of the valley, is one of the successful men In the in dustry. He was secretary of the mint growers' association for, this section, which has not been very active in the past year, but ought to h revived and made 100 per cent strong, if possible. VIEW POII OF INDIANA ASSOCIATED MCI EI BUT I ST HERE IS A TvVJJ LVIIO IS NOT GUESSING JG OIL SHIT TOT E1IETS He Ships Peppermint Oil Only That Goes Above the Govern ment Standards, and He Is Able to Certify to This Fact, by Putting It Through Processes That Make It That Pure 'And All of It Goes to the Markets Under the Name of Oregon Oil, Which Now Stands for High Quality Among the Qualified Judges and Buyers i Editor Statesman: All contracts for the sale or purchase of peppermint oil have the expression, "Prime natural oil of peppermint." The question arises, what is prime natural oil of peppermint? The answer is that it is the product taken by steam distillation from the plant known as mentha piperita and said product conforming to certain tests as eet forth in the following paragraphs: In color it ranges from a very light golden yellow to a, rather deep yellow with a greenish tint. And it should be of a lustrous sparkling color rather than a dead one. The specific gravity must fall between 0.896 and 0.908. By that we mean that oil Is lighter than Lwater. If a volume of water weighs exactly one pound the same volume of oil will weigh about a fourth to a third of a pound less than the water at the same temperature. Oil is also tested In an instru ment called the polarlscope. a ray of light is passed through Says Current Sales In East Hover Around $3 a Pound, and That It Costs $2.50 a Pound to Produce It Says Observ ers Predict an Increasing Demand for Peppermint Oil inn MOT WWW m IIIIIST I (The following Associated Press item, under current date, origin ates at 'south Bend, Indiana, and comes In the special illustrated news service of that news agency: ) "Peppermint oil; once so pre cious that dealers kept It stored in bank vaults, has built and shat tered dreams of wealth in shorter time almost than any other farm crop. Two years ago a pound of it brought almost ? 30, buyers fought to contract all the growers had and jnuck fields reached a pre mium in Michigan and Indiana. "As quickly as It rose the price decreased. Current sales hover around $3 for a pound, and pro ducers say it cost S2.50 a pound to grow it. This -year's crop is that time better sales- could many years the price of oil did not greatly exceed $2 a pound. While Indiana is credited with more acre age, Michigan has the! larger farms. One firm alone has 2,000 acres, the largest mint farm in the world. Some of the fields are a mile and a half in length, covered with mint two or three feet high. Thirty pounds of oil to the acre is a fair production although some fields have produced nothing be cause of weeds. Others, meticu lously cultivated,- have reached almost 100 pounds to the acre. "There" is practically no coop erative organization, among mint producers, although 'efforts in that direction were made in 1926. At. be I field of pigweed, and of course the mint would not come through to show us the rows. We then employed help', which consisted of boys and girls from 12 to 16 years and men and women at 60 cents per Hour. The work was very te dious as well as expensive. We managed to get clean enough to distinguish rows. We then began to cultivate with single horse cul tivators and ridged the ground so that when we tried to cut with a mower we could not do it, owing to the deep ridges in rows. We then secured the help of six to eight men to cut with scythe. This was very expensive, as mint had it readily. The other is the root f rown a-uIck and beaTy and mn crop, which, when the prices of the oil were high, was a lucrative part of the industry, as every one wanted roots for starting a patch , of mint. A field of mint could be . stripped of its roots, and yet there . would be abundance left in the soil to make a crop of such thick growth that the roots dug and . sold would never be missed. In .fact, many claim that the stirring 5"5 --- M 4 11.- . 1 - ji iud giuuuu to get loo roots is beneficial to the next crop. "W There is estimated to be about .ntm on auw iu rami in iuis neighborhood, meaning tis Lablsh section and tributary. The yield runs from 25 to 100 ponuds of oil i per acre, wnne me price ranges from $2 to 12.75 the pound. I Labor figures less in the mint f crop than in most of the other f .-crops raised on this valuable land. r bringing the net profit a little higher than would appear from these figures. The quality of the soil is exceedingly good. This Is based on the cnenthol . content. wlth scythes "had ,tq cut up one side of the row and back on the other. , J More Trouble Before we finished distilling! thoroughly and economically. M rain and wet weather were so bad that we were compelled to leave helps nnin And the Factory of Eastman Bros., Silverton, Helps ! the Mint Industry One thing brings another. - The mint industry has brought the necessity of mint stills. .The right kind, for the succees of the indus try. So Eastman Bros., Silverton, Oregon, with one of the largest sheet metal plants in the west have bten making mint stills. The mint industry has helped them, and they have helped the mint In-! d us try, by making a superior still. One that eells at a reasonable price, and one that does the wojrk about one-third of the mint al ready cut on the field. We had several hundred pounds of oil and sold it for 11.25 : to fl.75 per pound not very profitable that year. " The .next year or spring. time for plowing and cultivating was so wet we could not get on that "grornd, so we let it so as meadow, not plowing at all; only doing some hand weeding such ae dock, em art weed and pigweed We received this second year about 40 pounds 'per acre, and handled more than three tons of herb per acre, oa account . of it being very- thick jaslnu It grew thick and late, and no leaves on the bottoms of hte stems. .' w " The Third Year " : Extensive experiments w e jr e made before the tnanufactnringlof the first stills was begun. : The world does not know a better dis tilling plant than the one. made byT the Eastmans. ,v ; -i..:...:i 'H f They have published a bulletin on "Peppermint "Culture and Dis tillation," compiled by themselves. This is a distinct contribution to the important and growing mint industry, of the Salem district. ! j fit will pay any one interested in the inint Industry to get a copy of this bulletin., A southern woman has named her son 'Bobby"; after her hair. and we suppose it man ever comes back into his own, they may start naming children f'Baldy" by the same - token. -Ft, Wayne Ne The third year on this 40 acres Sentinel.- 1 a subject of controversy. Buyers declare supplies are plentiful but growers insist production Is in adequate. Whatever -even, tenor there may be is due to long term contr- wh ---Ijjfci growers, accepting a sliding scale, insured themselves of better prices than the open market brings. Observers predict Increasing! demand for oil. In respective or der of importance it is used in dentifrices, confections and chew ing gnm, and in the retail drug trade. Makers of dental cream declare the world is just begin ning to brush its teeth, and candy manufacturers report steadily in creasing sales. "Generally the mint supply Is less than the demand. There are natural restrictions on production. Growers become discouraged when weeds overrun their crop and con taminate the oil so much that it suffers discounts on the markets. Distilling is a problem. Most grow ers have their own equipment al though custom stills are operated. Private stills do not pay- on less than 20 acres of good mint. How ever, ; mint; production rrequenuy is considered a subsidiary indus try, and as one producer drops out another fills his place. While not always as profitable as track crops adapted to similar land, mint ia perhaps more certain, i ne enor- unous price reduction has not cut the acreage seriously. . "Michigan and Indiana claim 85 per cent of. the total mint acre age, with Oregon. Washington and California ranging next in Impor tance. NoTth Carolina raises mint on her reclaimed swamp lands and small; amounts are grbwn In Wayne- and Seneca -counties. New York, cradle of Ihe industry. This year's acreage" was above." 50,000 acres and production approximat ed 759,000 pounds. ' . "New York farmers started growing mint as early as 181$. but- production did . not spread to Michigan . and , become established as an Industry until 1875. For parts of the above alcohol must completely absorb or take into complete solution not less than one part of oiL ' We also try oil with litmus paper to determine the possible presence of some undesirable ac ids. Prime oil has no effect on litmus paper. The Physical Tests The specific gravity, the polar lscope, the refractometer, the solu bility and litmus paper tests are known as the physical tests of oil. Prime oil passes all the above tests. It it fails to pass one or more it is safe to say that there are weed oils or other foreign oils present in the peppermint oils. Hence it follows that we make the! above, tests to determine the purity of the oils offered for sale, and the tests really serve that purpose. It Is very hard to find anything but good oil of peppermint that will pass the requirements. The Quality Tests Then there remains the chem ical assay of oil to determine the total menthol content and the tester content of the menthol. i most to do to advance their in dustry is to place an oil very high in the above tests on the eastern markets under an Oregon name and label. The world markets don't know onr oil and never will until we compel them to. There la no question but we can and do produce a rery superior oil. . Grant W. Shaf fner Is the chem ist In charge of testing for ns. - L. O. HERROLD. Salem, Ore., Dec 5, 1927. . (Mr. Herrold himself grows 300 acres of mint; In several sections of the Salem district. He markets a lot more.' He has the first re finery In Salem, already working and being increased in capacity and equipment, and due to become v--.-.u r expert skill and liberal money ex- ' pendlture can make it. Mr. Her rold is too modest to make such statements;-and there are a lot more that the writer is sworn not to divulge. BuC under another heading, there are some facta about his refining operations, and some hints, at least,' about what great benefits all this is going to mean to the Salem district. JJd. ) ... -I - some glass prisms and alsof Menthol is the chemical name of through a tube of oil and the the drug that forms the largest prisms ( must be turned to a cer tain position to produce the test. This is" known as the "optical ro tations" of oil of peppermint and part of oil of peppermint. Esters of menthol is one form of the drug called menthol. It requires a long and very careful chemical anal- must fall between a minus 23 and ysis to determine how much men- a minus 33 -on the scale of the polarlscope. There la- another instrument known as the refractometer. Oil Is tested by this instrument and mnst read on Its scale between 1.4600 and 1.4710. Another test of oil is its solu bility in 70 per cent alcohol. Four era can produce mint at 1.50 a nound. ' Some say $1. They can grow more to the acre here; al most twice as much on tne ave rage, i And our mint is better; itmnror-. irnns ' further. It has a larger menthol content to the pound, and a larger ester content. Has a better flavor. These things are as certain to transfer the wni-M mint center to Salem as that water will seek Its level. imt.) contracted lnaiviauaiiy. An or ganization of limited function ex ists in South Bend- and another on operated in .Oregon," W Ubia will aim: Aa n maitar . T. 7. ot course, wn w . the mint industry will be traofa. f erred to the -Willamette . valley. The reason is contained in two facts. One ot them is found In the above Associated Press article, in which it is stated that it costs 32.50 a pound to produce pepper mint oil, in Indiana, Michigan, and other eastern states. The oth er is found in the fact that the overhead ia lower here, and the quality higher. That is, our grow- EXGWsn NOISES tlJPAXto- , r BASlKGSTOKE, EnglandPub lic attention has been fwussed on the small pay of nurses in Great Britain through the strike 'of voung? nurses at . a local asylum. They were receiving only about 2175 a year. Read the Classified Ads Headquarters for that Keep on Giving i i VVMTT 111 I 1 1 r-4 f ': i tnoi ana esters tnere are in a I sample of oil. It must be done by an experienced and competent chemist or mistakes will be made and Injury done to either the buy er or seller. There must not be less than 5 0 per cent total of menthol- and of that 50 per cent at least 5 per cent must be in the form of esters. Then there is thel final test of odor and flavor. A sanmle of oil might nassi all the' above tests and yet not be PlneTRIPLEX GRILL oil because tt does not nave tne characteristic peppermint odor and flavor. It is a drug and not a food and is used largely to pro duce a certain flavor and odor in other products, hence must con form to the tests and also produce the effects desired. The flavor and odor are determined only by smelling and tasting the oil, and rsxperience rnecessaryTO juas Of its values thereby. -- t Tests Are Required The above tests are required by Hi. 1 i bit tot m. rik,.,vin tttli and otberi rr toasts, broili bolls, fries, poaches three operations at 'one time. Connects to any electric socket. Here Is a beautiful gift that will be used every day a permanent reminder of the giver. - i The name Hotpoint guarantees . Auiauoij markets is judged and valued by; these same tests. Hence prime oil is an oil that passes the above out lined tests; Oils which are defic ient in one or more of the require ments can often be brought up to the standard by refining or redis tilling. What Oregon growers need LSUjNa PORTLAND ELECTRIC POWER CO. i t - Salens Oregom 237 X. Liberty St. V v ' III -- I.-' r . . . '. I -4 0 r 41 I A trial will prove its merit. You must be satisfied - you are the judge - under tK&pos itive money back guarantee. Thd Statesman Annual Edition Will be released Sunday, January 1, 1928 i Order your extra copies now to send to your friends here and in the East j .copies of the 42nd Annual Year-End Edition of the Oregon Oregon Statesman, Salem, Oregon. ' - . I i-. i:- . Please mail for meL.. . Statesman to the following listed addresses, for 'which I agree to remit on receipt of statement at the rate of 25c per copy. : :NAMBUC r V:.-' STREET V: . - - CITT ' STATE . . .. :. , . -. --".::" " ; i',';v-;rv ... -' . 3 ;' " T - '- , ' 4 1 - - : L ; e. i. . . - , . - - - : ' t : " ' . , 1 ' ; l : " f.. . i . , OS