Darrow School - Shaker Post Yearbook (New Lebanon, NY)

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The Peg Board 1936 THE EXTRACT HOUSE Reproduced from Harper's Magazine XV Uuly 1857j, 173. medicinal fields and gardens. The extra laborers are generally females. These fields and gardens cover about seventy-five acres, a portion of which is devoted to the cultivation - s of various herbs and vegetables for their seeds. This building was used by the Shakers until 1875. On Saturday, February 9.7 of that year, at eleven o'clock in the morning, Fire broke out in the press room. After about half an hour s ' h l l' ht battle, in which Sister Emma Neale had an important part, it was extinguished wit on y s ig damage, but two hours later fire was again discovered in the same building, which this time was totally destroyed' Unfortunately, there was no insurance. The making of extracts must have begun before 1832, for the Manyesto tells us that in that year a large building was demanded for the trade. ' This was known as the Extract House. The same writer who described the Herb House has left us an interesting sketch of the work which went on in the Extract House and in the Finishing Room, which was in an adjacent building: The Extract House, in which is the laboratory for the preparation of juices for medical purposes, is a large frame building, thirty-six by one hundred feet. It was erected in 1850. It is supplied with the most perfect apparatus, and managed by James Long, a k'llf l h ist and a member of the Society In the principal room of the laboratory the s 1 u c em , . chief operations of cracking, steaming, and pressing the roots and herbs are carried on, to- gether with the boiling of the juices thus extracted. In one corner is a large boiler, into which the herbs or roots are placed and steam introduced. From this boiler the steamed herbs are conveyed to grated cylinders, and subjected to immense pressure. The juices 8. Harper's Magazine, XV Uuly 18571, 172. 9 This tire occurred only a few weeks after the great fire of February 6, 1875, which destroyed eight buildings. Sister Emma tells ll! that it has been proved conclusively that both were of incendiary origin. 10. XX Kseptember 18907, 194. 36

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1936 The Peg Board War and for a number of years thereafter the industry sufferedumany unlooked-for reverses. 2 It continued, however, until the late 80's or early 9O,S.n3 In a letter from one young believer at home lEmil Bretznerl to another in England, and dated January 7, 1871, we find the follow- ing comment on the seed business: If you had only known how much trouble we take about those seeds you helped us gather in last fall, you would have considered more than once before going to England. When we get the seeds threshed and well cleaned, we take them to the shop and put them up in little paper bags to send to our customers. What a job that is! One cuts the bags, another folds them, a third one prints, a fourth one pastes thim, a fifth one puts in the seed, a sixth seals them up, a seventh puts them in the boxes a d off they go to our great rejoicing. One more has to go and collect the money for them, and that is the worst of all.4 Along with the garden seed industry came the business of drying sweet corn for the wholesale and retail markets. This was started at Mount Lebanon in 1828 and continued throughout the century. After the cobs had been boiled in great iron kettles, the kernels were cut off with hand knives and then dried in the sun. At a later period steam-operated machines were intro- duced for cutting the corn, and thus the amount of labor required was reduced considerably? In 1866 the price for a barrel of this corn was 520. During the early 80's outside competition made heavy inroads on the business, but it was not discontinued until about 1900. Exceedingly important also was the medicinal herb industry. The Shakers state that the cultivation of herbs and roots for sale began in 1820. Up to that time only wild herbs had been gatheredf' In 1826 the demand for Shaker herb preparations had become so heavy that it be- came necessary to use herbs imported from outside as well as those grown in the Mount Lebanon gardensf In 1850 large additions were made to the buildings and machinery. These fa- cilities made it possible for the Shakers to increase their output greatly. A gentleman who visited Mount Lebanon in 1857, or slightly before, has left us the following description of the building in which the Shakers prepared their herbs: The Herb House, where the various botanical preparations are put up for market, is a frame building in the center of the village, one hundred and twenty feet in length, forty feet in width, and two stories and an attic in height. There are some spacious out- houses connected with it. The lower part is used for the business oHice, store-rooms, and for pressing and packing the herbs and roots. The second story and attic are the drying rooms, where the green herbs are laid upon sheets of canvas, about fourteen inches apart, supported by cords. The basement is devoted to heavy storage and the horse-power by which the press in the second story is worked. That press is one of the most perfect of the kind. It has a power of three hundred tons, and turns out each day about two hundred and fifty pounds of herbs, or six hundred pounds of roots, pressed for use. This performance will be doubled when steam shall be applied to the press. The herbs and roots come out in solid cakes, an inch thick, and seven and a quarter inches square, weighing a pound each. These are then taken into another room, where they are kept in small presses, arranged in a row, so as to preserve their form until placed in papers and labeled. During the year 18 5 5 about seventy-five tons of roots and herbs were pressed in the establishment. About ten persons are continually employed in this business, and occasionally twice that number are there, engaged in picking over the green herbs and cleansing the roots brought from the 2. The Manifesto, XX CMarch 18901, 50. 3. Edward D. Andrews, The Community Industries of the Shakers, Albany, 1932, p. 81. 4. The Shaker, II flfebruary 18727, p. 16. 5. The Community Industries of the Shakers, 82. 6. The Manifesto, XX' September 18907, 195. 7. The Community Industries of the Shakers, p. 92. It is interesting to note that the Shaker uphysic gardens were scattered all over New Lebanon. 35

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1936 if 4 TT if iiiTheiiPieig Board ix THE LABORATORY Reproduced from Harpefs Magazine, XV Cjuly 18575, 173. thus expressed are then put in copper pans, inclosed in iron jackets, in such manner that steam is introduced between the jackets and the pans and the liquid boiled down to the proper consistency for use. Some juices, in order to avoid the destruction or modification of their medical properties, are conveyed to an upper room, and there boiled in a huge copper vacuum pan, from which, as its name implies, the air has been exhausted. This allows the liquid to boil at a much lower temperature than it would in the open air. In a room adjoining the vacuum pan are mills for reducing dried roots to impalpable powder. These roots are first cracked to the size of samp in the room below, by being crushed under two huge discs of Esopus granite, each four feet in diameter, a foot in thickness and a ton in weight. These are made to revolve in a large vessel by steam power. The roots are then carried to the mills above. These are made of two upper and a nether stone of Esopus granite. The upper stones are in the form of truncated cones, and rest upon the nether stone, which is beveled. A shaft in centre, to which they are attached by arms, makes them revolve, and at the same time they turn upon their own axes. The roots ground under them by this double motion are made into powder almost impalpable. In a building near the Extract House is the Finishing Room, where the preparations, already placed in phials, bottles, and jars, are labeled and packed for market. This service is performed by two womeng and from this room those materials, now so extensively used in the materia medica, are sent forth. These extracts are of the purest kind. The water used for the purpose is conveyed through earthen pipes from a pure mountain spring, an eighth of a mile distant, which is singularly free from all earthy matter. This is ofinfinite importance in the preparation of these medicinal juices. They are, consequently, very pop- ular, and the business is annually increasing. During the year 1855 they prepared at that laboratory and sold about fourteen thousand pounds. The chief products are the extracts 37