It may be interesting to note here that on muck lands, when necessary, the horses are usually provided with mud shoes to prevent their sinking into the soft, wet ground, these mud shoes consisting of wide pieces of iron or wood about 9 by 10 inches, fastened to the hoofs and ordinary shoes by means of bolts and straps. CONDITIONS INJURIOUS TO CROP. Cold and wet weather or extremely dry periods have a very unfavorable effect on the mint crop. Insect enemies also tend to cut down the mint harvest—grasshoppers, crickets, and cutworms sometimes doing considerable damage. A rust, causing the foliage to drop off and leaving the stems almost bare, is apt to follow if very moist weather occurs toward the latter part of the season. Weeds are especially to be avoided in a mint field, since, as stated, the quality of the oil will be seriously impaired if these are harvested with the peppermint. The weeds generally found in a peppermint field are Canada fleabane (_Leptilon canadense_), fireweed (_Erechtites hieracifolia_), giant ragweed (_Ambrosia trifida_), pennyroyal (_Hedeoma pulegioides_), Eaton’s grass (_Eatonia pennsylvanica_), June grass (_Poa pratensis_), and other low grasses. FOOTNOTES: [4] Twentieth Annual Report of the Bureau of Labor of the State of Michigan, 1903, pp. 438-447. HARVESTING AND DISTILLATION. The first crop of mint is harvested in the latter part of August, when the plants are in full flower, and the gathering continues until about the middle of September, the stills running night and day until all the mint is disposed of. The first crop is usually cut with a scythe, as mowing machines do not work well on soft cultivated land. The succeeding crops are cut with a mowing machine or sweep-rake reaper. The highest yield per acre and the best quality of oil are obtained from the first year’s crop. Sometimes, if the weather conditions have been very favorable, a second cutting is made. The yield of oil from peppermint obtained from the same field sometimes varies very much, the condition of the atmosphere seeming to exert an influence upon it, as it is said that mint cut after a warm and humid night will yield more oil than that cut after a cool and dry night. It requires about 330 pounds of dried peppermint to produce 1 pound of oil, and the yield of oil from an acre ranges from 12 to 50 pounds. If the mint crop has been grown on muck land, all that is necessary after the crop has been harvested is to plow up the land and turn the runners under for a new crop. If grown on upland, after the second year’s crop is in, or, at the most, after the third year’s harvest, the land is plowed and then given up to other crops. Peppermint exhausts the land, and it is necessary to practice rotation of crops for about five years in order to put the land in condition if it is desired to use it again for peppermint cultivation.