THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 17 



acre would supply a million people with all this drug they 

 would need in a year. 



An inspection of the prices of drug plants appended to this 

 article, will show few that offer more than a very moderate 

 return for the time spent in collecting them from the wild and 

 this return would be further reduced, if one were to attempt 

 their cultivation, for then the cost of the land and its prepara- 

 tion, as well as the seed, would have to be included. More- 

 over, the prices given are the highest retail prices in a war 

 year and the wholesaler under normal conditions, would offer 

 much less — perhaps only half as much. It should be remem- 

 bered, also, that before the plants are ready for market, they 

 must be dug, washed, peeled, sliced, dried and otherwise pre- 

 pared and the care with which this is done, greatly affects the 

 salability of the plants. One must also allow for the expenses 

 of packing, transporation and various incidentals and above 

 all, must know the best time for collecting each kind and 

 where to sell it. 



Whenever the price of a drug appears sufficiently high to 

 make its collection or cultivation worth while, there is usually 

 some other obstacle in our pathway to sudden wealth. Saffron 

 for instance, is quoted at $14.00 a pound, but saffron is made 

 from the stigmas of a species of crocus and after one had 

 rifled some thousands of flowers for enough of the tiny stig- 

 mas, to make a pound, he would discover that he had fully 

 earned his $14.00. Pure oil of wintergreen is worth $5.20 a 

 pound. An oil exactly like it, from the black birch, brings 

 $3.30 a pound, while the synthetical oil that cannot be distin- 

 guished from the others is quoted at $1.35 a pound. The 

 price of hydrastis is high and is likely to remain so for a long 

 time, but the plant is scarce in the wild and also very difficult 

 to cultivate. It requires three years to come to maturity from 

 seed, but is reported to yield 1500 pounds of the rhizomes to 



