Ginseng and Other Medicinal Plants Part 2

Tansy (Trailing Arbutus. See Gravel Plant)--The Herb.

Veratrum Viride (Green h.e.l.lebore. American h.e.l.lebore)--The Root.

Vervain (Blue Vervain)--The Herb.

Virginia Stone Crop (Dutch Stone Crop) Wafer Ash (Hop Tree. Swamp Dogwood. Stinking Ash. Scrubby Trefoil.

Ague Bark)--The Bark of Root.

Water Avens (Throat Root. Cure All. Evan's Root. Indian Chocolate.

Chocolate Root. Bennett Root)--The Root.

Water Eryngo (b.u.t.ton Snake Root. Corn Snake Root. Rattle Snake's Weed)--The Root.

Water Hemlock (Spotted Parsley. Spotted Hemlock. Poison Parsley.

Poison Hemlock. Poison Snake Weed. Beaver Poison)--The Herb.

Watermelon--The Seed.

Water Pepper (Smart Weed. Arsmart)--The Herb.

Water Ash--The Bark of Tree.

White Oak (Tanners Bark)--The Bark of Tree, Rossed.

White Ash--The Bark of Tree.

White Poplar (Trembling Poplar. Aspen. Quaking Asp)--The Bark of Tree.

Wild Lettuce (Wild Opium Lettuce. Snake Weed. Trumpet Weed)--The Leaves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Indian Turnip (Wild).]

Wild Turnip (Indian Turnip. Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Pepper Turnip.

Swamp Turnip)--The Root, sliced.

Wintergreen (Checkerberry. Partridge Berry. Teaberry.

Deerberry)--The Leaves.

Witch Hazel (Striped Alder. Spotted Alder. Hazelnut)--The Bark. The Leaves.

Yarrow (Milfoil. Thousand Leaf)--The Herb.

Yellow Parilla (Moon Seed. Texas Sarsaparilla)--The Root.

Yerba Santa (Mountain Balm. Gum Plant. Tar Weed)--The Leaves.

CHAPTER III.

CULTIVATION OF WILD PLANTS.

The leading botanical roots in demand by the drug trade are the following, to-wit: Ginseng, Golden Seal, Senega or Seneca Snake Root, Serpentaria or Virginia Snake Root, Wild Ginger or Canada Snake Root, Mandrake or Mayapple, Pink Root, Blood Root, Lady Slipper, Black Root, Poke Root and the Docks. Most of these are found in abundance in their natural habitat, and the prices paid for the crude drugs will not, as yet, tempt many persons to gather the roots, wash, cure, and market them, much less attempt their culture. But Ginseng, Golden Seal, Senega, Serpentaria and Wild Ginger are becoming very scarce, and the prices paid for these roots will induce persons interested in them to study their several natures, manner of growth, natural habitat, methods of propagation, cultivation, etc.

This opens up a new field of industry to persons having the natural apt.i.tude for such work. Of course, the soil and environment must be congenial to the plant grown. A field that would raise an abundance of corn, cotton, or wheat would not raise Ginseng or Golden Seal at all. Yet these plants grown as their natures demand, and by one who "knows," will yield a thousand times more value per acre than corn, cotton or wheat. A very small Ginseng garden is worth quite an acreage of wheat. I have not as yet marketed any cultivated Ginseng.

It is too precious and of too much value as a yielder of seeds to dig for the market.

Some years ago I dug and marketed, writes a West Virginia party, the Golden Seal growing in a small plot, ten feet wide by thirty feet long, as a test, to see if the cultivation of this plant would pay. I found that it paid extremely well, although I made this test at a great loss. This bed had been set three years. In setting I used about three times as much ground as was needed, as the plants were set in rows eighteen inches apart and about one foot apart in the rows. The rows should have been one foot apart, and the plants about six inches apart in the rows, or less. I dug the plants in the fall about the time the tops were drying down, washed them clean, dried them carefully in the shade and sold them to a man in the city of Huntington, W Va. He paid me $1.00 per pound and the patch brought me $11.60, or at the rate of $1,684.32 per acre, by actual measure and test.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Canadian Snake Root (Cultivated).]

This experiment opened my eyes very wide. The patch had cost me practically nothing, and taking this view only, had paid "extremely well." But, I said, "I made this test at a great loss," which is true, taking the proper view of the case. Suppose I had cut those roots up into pieces for propagation, and stratified them in boxes of sandy loam through the winter, and when the buds formed on them carefully set them in well prepared beds. I would now have a little growing gold mine. The price has been $1.75 for such stock, or 75% more than when I sold, making an acre of such stuff worth $2,948.56.

The $11.60 worth of stock would have set an acre, or nearly so. So my experiment was a great loss, taking this view of it.

I am raising, in a small way, Ginseng, Lady Slipper, Wild Ginger and Virginia Snake Root, and am having very good success with all of it.

I am also experimenting with some flowering plants, such as Sweet Harbinger, Hepatica, Blood Root, and Blue Bell. I am trying to propagate and grow some shrubs and trees to be used as yard and cemetery trees. Of these my most interesting one is the American Christmas Holly. I have not made much headway with it yet, but I am not discouraged. I know more about it than when I began, and think I shall succeed. There is good demand for Holly at Christmas time, and I can find ready sale for all I can get. I think the plants should sell well, as it makes a beautiful shrub. I think the time has come when the Ginseng and Golden Seal of commerce and medicine will practically all come from the gardens of the cultivators of these plants. I do not see any danger of overproduction. The demand is great and is increasing year by year. Of course, like the rising of a river, the price may ebb and flow, somewhat, but it is constantly going up.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Blood Root (Cultivated).]

The information contained in the following pages about the habits, range, description and price of scores of root drugs will help hundreds to distinguish the valuable plants from the worthless. In most instances a good photo of the plant and root is given. As Ginseng and Golden Seal are the most valuable, instructions for the cultivation and marketing of same is given in detail. Any root can be successfully grown if the would-be grower will only give close attention to the kind of soil, shade, etc., under which the plant flourishes in its native state.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sarsaparilla Plant (Wild).]

Detailed methods of growing Ginseng and Golden Seal are given from which it will be learned that the most successful ones are those who are cultivating these plants under conditions as near those as possible which the plants enjoy when growing wild in the forests.

Note carefully the nature of the soil, how much sunlight gets to the plants, how much leaf mould and other mulch at the various seasons of the year.

It has been proven that Ginseng and Golden Seal do best when cultivated as near to nature as possible. It is therefore reasonable to a.s.sume that all other roots which grow wild and have a cash value, for medicinal and other purposes, will do best when "cultivated" or handled as near as possible under conditions which they thrived when wild in the forests.

Many "root drugs" which at this time are not very valuable--bringing only a few cents a pound--will advance in price and those who wish to engage in the medicinal root growing business can do so with reasonable a.s.surance that prices will advance for the supply growing wild is dwindling smaller and smaller each year. Look at the prices paid for Ginseng and Golden Seal in 1908 and compare with ten years prior or 1898. Who knows but that in the near future an advance of hundreds of per cent. will have been scored on wild turnip, lady's slipper, crawley root, Canada snakeroot, serpentaria (known also as Virginia and Texas snakeroot), yellow dock, black cohosh, Oregon grape, blue cohosh, twinleaf, mayapple, Canada moonseed, blood-root, hydrangea, crane's bill, seneca snakeroot, wild sarsaparilla, pinkroot, black Indian hemp, pleurisy-root, culvers root, dandelion, etc., etc.?

Of course it will be best to grow only the more valuable roots, but at the same time a small patch of one or more of those mentioned above may prove a profitable investment. None of these are apt to command the high price of Ginseng, but the grower must remember that it takes Ginseng some years to produce roots of marketable size, while many other plants produce marketable roots in a year.

There are thousands of land owners in all parts of America that can make money by gathering the roots, plants and barks now growing on their premises. If care is taken to only dig and collect the best specimens an income for years can be had.

CHAPTER IV.

THE STORY OF GINSENG.

History and science have their romances as vivid and as fascinating as any in the realms of fiction. No story ever told has surpa.s.sed in interest the history of this mysterious plant Ginseng; the root that for nearly 200 years has been an important article of export to China.

Until a few years ago not one in a hundred intelligent Americans living in cities and towns, ever heard of the plant, and those in the wilder parts of the country who dug and sold the roots could tell nothing of its history and use. Their forefathers had dug and sold Ginseng. They merely followed the old custom.

The natural range of Ginseng growing wild in the United States is north to the Canadian line, embracing all the states of Maine, New Hamps.h.i.+re, Vermont, Ma.s.sachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Tennessee. It is also found in a greater part of the following states: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North and South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. Until recently the plant was found growing wild in the above states in abundance, especially those states touched by the Allegheny mountains. The plant is also found in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, but has become scarce there also, owing to persistent hunting. It also grows sparingly in the states west of and bordering on the Mississippi river.

Ginseng in the United States was not considered of any medical value until about 1905, but in China it is and has been highly prized for medical purposes and large quant.i.ties of the root are exported to that country. It is indeed doubtful if the root has much if any medical value, and the fact that the Chinese prefer roots that resemble, somewhat, the human body, only goes to prove that their use of the root is rather from superst.i.tion than real value.

Of late years Ginseng is being cultivated by the Chinese in that country, but the root does not attain the size that it does in America, and the plant from this side will, no doubt, continue to be exported in large quant.i.ties.

New York and San Francisco are the two leading cities from which exports are made to China, and in each of these places are many large dealers who annually collect hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth.

The most valuable Ginseng grows in New York, the New England states and northern Pennsylvania. The root from southern sections sells at from fifty cents to one dollar per pound less.

Ginseng in the wild or natural state grows largely in beech, sugar and poplar forests and prefers a damp soil. The appearance of Ginseng when young resembles somewhat newly sprouted beans; the plant only grows a few inches the first year. In the fall the stem dies and in the spring the stalk grows up again. The height of the full grown stalk is from eighteen to twenty inches, altho they sometimes grow higher. The berries and seed are crimson (scarlet) color when ripe in the fall. For three or four years the wild plants are small, and unless one has a practical eye will escape notice, but professional diggers have so persistently scoured the hills that in sections where a few years ago it was abundant, it is now extinct.

While the palmy days of digging were on, it was a novel occupation and the "seng diggers," as they are commonly called, go into the woods armed with a small mattock and sack, and the search for the valuable plant begins. Ginseng usually grows in patches and these spots are well known to the mountain residents. Often scores of pounds of root are taken from one patch, and the occupation is a very profitable one. The women as well as the men hunt Ginseng, and the stalk is well known to all mountain lads and la.s.sies. Ginseng grows in a rich, black soil, and is more commonly found on the hillsides than in the lowlands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ginseng Plant and Roots.]

Few are the mountain residents who do not devote some of their time to hunting this valuable plant, and in the mountain farm houses there are now many hundred pounds of the article laid away waiting the market. While the fall is the favorite time for Ginseng hunting, it is carried on all summer. When a patch of the root is found the hunter loses no time in digging it. To leave it until the fall would be to lose it, for undoubtedly some other hunter would find the patch and dig it.

How this odd commerce with China arose is in itself remarkable. Many, many years ago a Catholic priest, one who had long served in China, came as a missionary to the wilds of Canada. Here in the forest he noted a plant bearing close resemblance to one much valued as a medicine by the Chinese. A few roots were gathered and sent as a sample to China, and many months afterwards the s.h.i.+ps brought back the welcome news that the Chinamen would buy the roots.

Early in its history the value of Ginseng as a cultivated crop was recognized, and repeated efforts made for its propagation. Each attempt ended in failure. It became an accepted fact with the people that Ginseng could not be grown. Now these experimenters were not botanists, and consequently they failed to note some very simple yet essential requirements of the plant. About 1890 experiments were renewed. This time by skilled and competent men who quickly learned that the plant would thrive only under its native forest conditions, ample shade, and a loose, mellow soil, rich in humus, or decayed vegetable matter. As has since been shown by the success of the growers. Ginseng is easily grown, and responds readily to proper care and attention. Under right conditions the cultivated roots are much larger and finer, and grow more quickly than the wild ones.

It may be stated in pa.s.sing, that Chinese Ginseng is not quite the same thing as that found in America, but is a variety called Panax Ginseng, while ours is Panax Quinquefolia. The chemists say, however, that so far as a.n.a.lysis shows, both have practically the same properties. It was originally distributed over a wide area, being found everywhere in the eastern part of the United States and Canada where soil and locality were favorable.