The first step taken by this New York firm in its efforts to control the peppermint oil market was to send a representative to Liverpool, England, to ascertain the amount annually demanded by that market, which was found to be about 12,000 pounds. This done, another agent was sent West to determine the amount produced annually, with the result that it was found that the farms in New York did not produce enough oil for their purposes, the plantations in Ohio too much, while those in Michigan seemed to produce just about the right amount to satisfy the Liverpool demand. A contract was then entered into by this agent with the producers in New York and Ohio “whereby he bound them under heavy penalties to plow up their mint fields and destroy the roots, and not plant any more mint, or sell or give away any roots, or produce or sell any mint oil for the period of five years.” For this wholesale destruction of their mint fields the producers received a bonus of $1.50 per acre. Next a contract was made by the agent with the producers of St. Joseph County, Mich., agreeing to pay them $2.50 a pound for their mint oil, every ounce of the mint oil to be delivered for a period of five years to the agents named in the contract. They also were prohibited during this period from extending their plantations and from selling roots to anyone. The producers held to these contracts for about three years, after which period the New York firm was not so anxious to enforce them, having, in the meantime, acquired a large fortune through its peppermint oil monopoly. Since that period the area devoted to peppermint cultivation in Michigan has steadily increased, and northern Indiana, with its principal centers of production in St. Joseph, Steuben, and La Grange counties, continues to place on the market a considerable quantity of oil. Ohio seems to have abandoned peppermint cultivation, at least on a commercial scale, and New York, for a number of years and until very recently, had greatly reduced the area under peppermint, thousands of acres formerly devoted to this crop having been given over to sugar beets, onions, and celery. In 1889 Wayne County, N. Y., had 3,325 acres of peppermint, whereas in 1899 there were only 300 acres. In 1905, about 933 acres were under cultivation. Special canvassers appointed by the State of Michigan[3] made a canvass of 299 growers in the peppermint district in that State, covering 39 townships in nine counties (Allegan, Berrien, Branch, Cass, Kalamazoo, Oakland, St. Joseph, St. Clair, and Van Buren), and the total number of acres under peppermint cultivation, the number of pounds of oil distilled, and the average number of pounds per acre, as ascertained by this canvass, for the years 1900, 1901, and 1902, are as follows: