In my opinion those who are desirous of entering an industry of this kind will realize the most profits in the long run if they devote attention to the study and cultivation of those medical plants used in the therapy of the regular practice of medicine, such as Hydrastis, Seneca, Sanguinaria, Lady Slipper, Mandrake, etc. They are easily raised and have a ready market at any of our drug mills. I have experimented with a number of these and find they thrive under the care of cultivation and I believe in some instances the real medical properties are improved, as Atropine in Belladonna and Hydrastine in Hydrastis.
I have several thousand Hydrastis plants under cultivation and intend to make tests this season for the quantity of Hydrastine in a given weight of Hydrastis and compare with the wild article. It is the amount of Hydrastine or alkaloid in a fluid extract which by test determines the standard of the official preparation and is the real valuable part of the root.
This drug has grown wonderfully in favor with the profession in recent years and this increased demand with decrease of supply has sent the price of the article soaring so that we are paying five times as much for the drug in stock today as we paid only three or four years ago.
I trust that I have enlarged upon and presented some facts which may be of interest and cause those readers who are interested in this industry to have a serious regard for the betterment of present conditions, to use more caution in supplying the market and not allow venders to seriously damage the industry by their pipe dream in an attempt to find sales for so-called nursery stock.
L. C Ingram, M. D., Wabasha County, Minn.
It was in the year of 1901, in the month of June, that I first heard of the wonderful Ginseng plant. Being a lover of nature and given to strolling in the forests at various times, I soon came to know the Ginseng plant in its wild state.
Having next obtained some knowledge regarding the cultivation of this plant from a grower several miles away, I set my first roots to the number of 100 in rich, well-drained garden soil, over which I erected a frame and covered it with brush to serve as shade.
In the spring of 1902 nearly all the roots made their appearance and from these I gathered a nice crop of seed later on in the season. That summer I set out 2,200 more wild roots in common garden soil using lath nailed to frames of scantling for shade. Lath was nailed so as to make two-thirds of shade to one-third of sun. This kind of shading I have since adopted for general use, because I find it the most economical and for enduring all kinds of weather it cannot be surpassed.
During the season of 1903 I lost several hundred roots by rot, caused by an excessive wet season and imperfect drainage.