COUNTRIES WHERE GROWN.
Reading edition
The most important peppermint-producing countries are the United States, England, and Japan. Peppermint is grown on a smaller scale in Germany, France, Italy, Russia, China, and southern India.
In Japan, peppermint cultivation is said to have been undertaken before the Christian era. The plant grown there is not, as already stated, the peppermint cultivated in our country, but Mentha arvensis piperascens, which is entirely distinct from the true peppermint, not only botanically but also in taste and odor.
Peppermint is cultivated on many drug farms in England, especially at Mitcham, the middle of the eighteenth century marking the beginning of peppermint cultivation in that country. Up to 1805, however, there were no stills at Mitcham, and the crops obtained there were sent to London for distillation. About 1850, at which time the peppermint industry in England was at its height, the effect of American competition began to be felt, and caused a decided check in the production.