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 aptitude 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.

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.

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.

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 assume 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 assurance 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.