Chapter IV: Part 4

The plants are harvested when in full bloom and may be cut with a scythe, or a reaper may be used if the area is large. While still fresh, the plants are distilled with steam to obtain the volatile oil. To prepare the leaves and flowering tops for market they are stripped from the stems by hand after the plants are cut and carefully dried in the shade without the use of artificial heat.

Experimental plantings have given yields at the rate of 2,000 pounds of dry tops or 40 pounds of oil per acre. When grown on a commercial scale the yield of oil appears to average about 20 pounds per acre.

The prewar price of the dry tops was about 6 or 7 cents a pound. Its price in June, 1920, was 17 to 18 cents a pound. The oil was once used extensively in the manufacture of absinth, but when the use of this product was restricted in 1912 the demand for the oil fell off and the price declined, until in the early part of 1915 it reached the low level of $2 a pound. The price in June, 1920, was about $13 a pound. The average annual production of oil of wormwood is about 2,000 pounds. Owing to the limited use of this oil, there appears to be little room for further profitable expansion of this industry.

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Transcriber Note

Illustrations relocated to avoid splitting paragraphs. Minor typos may have been corrected.

End of Project Gutenberg's USDA Farmer's Bulletin 663, by W. W. Stockberger