MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 173 



Some thirty-five years ago an effort was made to have the United States 

 Department of Agriculture carry on experiments which would ultimately lead 

 to the Introduction and cultivation of very many foreign medicinal plants. It 

 was not, however, until 1913 that through the reorganization of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, was instituted a spe- 

 cial department for the study of drug yielding plants. This department has 

 since then conducted experiments on a number of both native and foreign drug- 

 yielding plants. There has been a divided opinion in this country as to the 

 possibility of cultivating medicinal plants and placing this industry on a paying 

 basis; in fact, there has been a prejudice against seriously considering this 

 subject in a practical manner. No doubt some of this sentiment was started 

 in the interest of those who were exporting drugs to this country. Fortunately, 

 however, some ten or twenty years ago there were those who recognized that 

 our supplies of native plants were being reduced as well as becoming of 

 inferior quality, and attention was directed to the necessity of providing for 

 future supplies through drug farming. Of course, sporadic attempts had been 

 made to grow medicinal plants in this country, but, vnth the exception of 

 ginseng, the attempts could hardly be termed successful. Valerian was grown 

 in Vermont, licorice in New Jersey, saffron near Lebanon, Pa., but these efforts 

 were of hardly more than local interest. Mrs. Gene Stratton Porter's book, 

 "The Harvester" appeared at a psychological moment, and to a remarkable 

 degree influenced business men to consider seriously this question. In the 

 meanwhile experiments had been conducted which showed that cultivated 

 plants were, if anything, more efficient than wild plants, and with the accep- 

 tation of this theory a few manufactures were ready to farm a certain number 

 of medicinal plants. The war situation brought us face to face with a possible 

 scarcity of a number of valuable crude drugs, and with the experience which 

 we have been gaining we have been rapidly building up this new industry. 

 The question which is giving me some concern is, will we continue under 

 normal conditions to develop this industry or will we allow it to lapse, losing 

 the impetus which we have thus far acquired, leaving it to another generation 

 to work it all over again? 



The greatest obstacle in' our developing drug farms has been the high 

 price paid for labor in this country, and the fact that we did not know how 

 to grow medicinal plants and harvest them so as to meet the foreign condi- 

 tions, where low price labor prevails. Since the war many of the foreign 

 sources for crude drugs have been cut off, and the prices soai-ed so high as 

 to make the cultivation of several medicinal plants very profitable. Indeed, 

 it has been possible to raise crops valued at from one hundred to one thousand 

 dollars per acre. It is quite likely within the next year or two that we will 

 again be supplied with foreign drugs or they will be offered for sale, and 

 the question will be whothor we can grow and b.irvest our own drug-yielding 

 plants and market them at a price to compete with those obtained from foreign 



