172 TWENTY-FIRST REPORT. 



in other localities than those in which they are indigenous. One of these is 

 the Venus' Fly Trap, which has not been successfully established outside of its 

 home in the vicinity of Wilmington, N. C. 



The experiments with the hop plant have been duplicated with other 

 plants, e.specially those of the mint family. The peppermint industry was first 

 developed in Wayne Comity, New York, and later taken up in Michigan, 

 Indiana, Ohio and other states. By reason of the more favorable climate and 

 soil conditions, the peppermint industry in Michigan has outstripped that of 

 the other states. The total amount of peppermint and spearmint oil produced 

 annually throughout the world is about 600,000 pounds. At the present time 

 nearly one-half of this is produced in the United States, Michigan producing 

 the largest proportion. It is not merely due to the fact that the muck lands 

 of Southern Michigan are specially suited to the development of these labiate 

 plants, but also to the fact that the growers in Michigan have invested con- 

 siderable capital in the business, and have provided themselves with an equip- 

 ment which enables them to handle the distilled oils in an economical manner. 

 The cost of operating an acre of mint and caring for it during the first season 

 is placed at about thirty dollars. This is cut about one-half in subsequent 

 years. The yield of green herb is about 30,000 pounds per acre, and this will 

 give on distillation, under the most favorable conditions, about 100 pounds 

 of oil, which will bring about two hundred and fifty dollars in the trade. 



In 'Eccle:?iasticus it is written that "the Lord created healing herbs out 

 of the earth and a prudent man will not cast them aside."' The origin of the 

 use of medicine goes back to antiquity, and there are records which shov\- 

 that some of the important medicinal plants were cultivated since first their 

 value was known. With the exception of the important farm products ther6 

 have been but comparatively few plants cultivated for medicinal and industrial 

 uses. Throughout the world nearly all of our crude drugs and commercial 

 supplies of very many economical products aje still obtained from wild pla)it5. 

 From the fields and forests of the United States enormous quantities of useful 

 products are obtained. It would be rather difficult to give an exact computa- 

 tion, .but somewhere from twenty-live to fifty per cent of the_ raw material 

 used in the arts and medicine are derived from plants growing in our country. 

 The remaining supplies are imported from nearly every part of the AvorUl. 

 It may be too much to expect that we can ever become entirely independent 

 of all other countries for our raw materials, but the les.son of this war teache;3 

 us that we should take every precaution to pro\ade against our being too 

 dependent and thus seriously handicapped when for any reason these foreign 

 supplies are cut off. This situation would be greatly improved if "by mutual 

 agreement with other nations as to the exchange of drug materials. History 

 shows that monopolies of medicinal supplies often give rise to prohibitive 

 prices, much to the discomfiture of the trade and greatly to the detrimouL ui" 

 the public. 



