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The Gmseng Trade 



China controls the ginseng market; in fact, it is the ultimate 

 market for the world's product of this aromatic root. A recent 

 report by United States Counsel C. L. L. Williams of Swatow, 

 China, gives much interesting information concerning this com- 

 modity. Formerly the principal supply came from the American 

 woods where ginseng (commonly called' "sang") grows wild; 

 and much still comes from that source, though of late years 

 efforts, more or less successful, have been made to cultivate the 

 plant in this country. It demands forest conditions — that is, suit- 

 able soil and subdued light, and persons who undertake to cultivate 

 the plant must provide those conditions artificially. It might be 

 thought a simple thing to do, yet those who grow ginseng under 

 lattice or other improvlzed shade have difficulty in selling their 

 roots as a wild product. Local buyers soon become sufficiently 

 expert to tell the difference. The ginseng may be planted in the 

 forest, and it will grow abundantly, but poachers are forever on 

 the lookout, and a patch which has been watched with care for 

 years is apt to disappear in a night. For that reason, the success- 

 ful cultivation of ginseng under genuine forest conditions is diffi- 

 cult in most parts of this country. 



Consul Williams' account of the purchase of the commodit.y 

 in China, and of what constitutes good and poor qualities, will 

 interest a good many dwellers in the hardwood regions of the 

 United States. "Long-stemmed, smooth-skinned, light-colored roots 

 are regarded as low grade," says the report. "Stout, heavy, 

 dark-colored roots, well marked with fine rings, are considered 

 the best. It is said that bifurcated roots, bearing a fanciful 

 resemblance to the human form, are highly esteemed." The 

 best in the Chinese market sells for about seven times as much 



as the cheapest, and the current quotation for the cheapest is 

 $5.76 a pound. Twelve grades or classes of roots are recognized 

 by Chinese dealers. Size and shape are the controlling factors 

 in grading, the larger the better, other things being equal. Less 

 than twenty roots to the pound constitute the highest grade. 



Chinese dealers skillfully change the shape of roots by manipu- 

 lation. A long, slender root, which is of low grade, is softened 

 by dampness, and then is pressed endwise and is made shorter. 

 The doctoring does not stop- at that. The fine lines which run 

 round the high-grade roots near the top are produced artificially 

 on low-grade stock by wrapping them with small wire and letting 

 them remain thus for a few hours. No ginseng imported into 

 China from the United States is sold to the ultimate consumer 

 in the form in which it reaches China. The roots are trimmed of 

 all rootlets, are clarified, manipulated and reshaped, and as a 

 final process they are subjected to sulphur fumes by which the 

 highly-prized flavor is given. Many of the users suppose that the 

 taste of sulphur belongs naturally to ginseng. 



"Wild ginseng," says Mr. Williams, "is theortically held to 

 be best, but very little genuine wUd ginseng is marketed. The 

 good grades generally consist of what is known to the trade as 

 transplanted ginseng, that which is found wild and transplanted 

 and cultivated." That description may hold for some countries, 

 but hardly for the article that comes from the eastern part of 

 the United States. Some is collected in its wild state and goes 

 to market without transplanting, and that which is supplied from 

 culivated plots is generally grown from the seeds without trans- 

 planting, or, at least, the transplanting is only from one part of 

 a plot to another. 



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Divisions of Veneer Making 



As compared to sawmilling there are certain divisions in veneer 

 manufacturing that seem peculiar; they are a little difficult to 

 account for at first and are open to some debate as to their real 

 merits. The sawmilling industr}' divides itself between the coni- 

 fers and what are termed the hardwoods, but not as between the 

 producers of high-grade lumber and common stock. Each mill 

 figures on cleaning up the tree of whatever class of timber being 

 cut, and makes all the different grades from clear stock down. In 

 the veneer industry, however, there is a more or less distinct 

 dividing line between the makers of fine veneer for face work and 

 the makers of common stock for box shooks, built-up lumber, 

 drawer bottoms, etc. One works for quality and the other works 

 for quantity and economy in production. Of course the plants 

 cutting fine veneer make some common and cull stock, and have 

 backs and fillers as well as faces, just as the mill cutting pine 

 may cut some hardwood to clean up its stumpage, but it is an 

 incident — the main object is the fine face stock. The other division 

 works up some fine timber, and at times turns it into face stock, 

 thus raising a question as to the advisability of such a division. 

 It is seldom that face stock from a plant cutting mainly plain 

 veneer will compare in quality with that of the plant making face 

 stock a specialty. 



One of the best practical veneer men in the country recently 

 gave a pointed reminder of this division in the veneer industry 

 while giving counsel to a furniture man who contemplated putting 

 in a panel plant. He advised him to buy his face veneer from 

 one source and his fillers and other plain stock from another. In 

 explanation of this, he pointed out that the men making plain 

 veneer down in the woods could supply it at a lower price than 

 the makers of fine face veneer. The face veneer man has his 

 machines and his men attuned to the quality idea as a dominant 



factor in the business; consequently it costs him more to cut the 

 stock. Furthermore, as a rule he buys only high-grade, expensive 

 logs for this work. And so, with unusually high prevailing log %'alues, 

 he is not in it when it comes to competitive prices with the man 

 making the plain, comm.on veneer used for box shooks and for 

 making plain built-up panels. 



This gives us a line of division in veneer making that is dif- 

 ferent from that found in sawmilling, and also distinct from the 

 natural lines of division that come from the different methods 

 of making veneer. Veneer is made by three general methods; 

 rotary cutting, slicing and sawing. The sawing and slicing gen- 

 erally divides the work of making quartered veneer, the class that 

 is cut for special figure, and the rotary machine is used for the 

 plain cut veneer, both the common and the fine face stock. How- 

 ever, there is quite a difference in the details of operation between 

 the plant making rotary-cut face veneer and the one making box 

 shooks and what is termed common stock. 



There is room for argument as to whether it is advisable to buy 

 the common, cheaply cut veneer for making fillers for fine face 

 work, rather than pay a higher price for well cut common veneer. 

 There is also room to question the wisdom of cheap cutting 

 instead of good cutting on the part of the maker of common veneer. 

 He might get enough more out of the stock by taking the same 

 pains with the cutting as the maker of face veneer to more than 

 cover the extra cost, and might then cut a fair percentage of face 

 stock from the cream of his timber. If in the course of time 

 this is found to be the right idea, and there should be a general 

 following of it, the line of division spoken of above would be 

 wiped out. As it stands today, however, there is a peculiar 

 ■division in the veneer making industry that is perhaps worthy of 

 special study. J. C. T. 



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