452 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Department of Agriculture sounds a note of warning about 

 going into ginseng culture. They recognize it as a legitimate busi- 

 ness but liable to be overdone. Whether they are right or not the 

 future will reveal. 



As we are selling the Chinese less than one-fourth cent's worth 

 of ginseng per capita annually and the demand has never been sup- 

 plied and prices have been steadily advancing for the past fifty years 

 and have doubled in the past ten, it would seem that this trade could 

 stand considerable expansion without any great reduction in price. 



Any one can succeed in growing ginseng who can raise fruit or 

 garden vegetables. Ginseng culture is not a get rich quick scheme, 

 as it takes time and considerable money to get much of a start, and 

 as it is a new industry we all have much to learn about it. 



Mr. C. S. Harrison (Neb.) : I think a man is fortunate if he has 

 plenty of healthy plants at present. There is nothing permanent 

 about the thing. They used to ship sassafras to Europe, and it was 

 thought to be a great thing, but it did not take long for it to die out 

 altogether. There is a bulletin out from Cornell university describ- 

 ing six diseases which have invaded the ginseng plant. The wilt 

 gets into the stem and crown. In another instance the root rotted. 

 They advise digging up the affected root and throwing it away 

 and starting out with fresh seed in a new place. You are very 

 fortunate in having no diseases here in Minnesota. If you are 

 going into the business you had better be sure you are getting live 

 and healthy roots. You might get one plant infected with one of 

 these diseases that might clean you out entirely. 



Mr. A. Brackett: I would like to ask Mr. Harrison where he 

 got hold of that. One of the best authorities I could get hold of 

 says there is absolutely nothing that preys upon ginseng. I thought 

 Mr. McCulley's paper was very good and that he was very con- 

 servative in his estimate. I asked him what he could sell the seed 

 for, and he told me, and taking that amount to the acre would 

 amount to something near one hundred thousand dollars. A great 

 many people say we do not want to grow ginseng. I advise such 

 people to grow radishes. They have good success in growing radishes 

 and getting them to market, and sometimes they can get a cent a 

 bunch for them. I think there is nothing in the world that offers 

 better inducements for growing than ginseng. The Chinese do not 

 get over their superstitious ideas very quickly. 



Prof. N. E. Hansen (S. D.) I saw an item in the American 

 Florist a few weeks ago by Vaughn, who says that the Chinese 

 discriminate against the cultivated ginseng, claiming that cultivation 

 *^^akes the potency out of the root. (Laughter.) 



The President : I would like to knov; how you can tell the 

 difference ? 



Mr. Preston McCulley : That is very easily answered. The wild 

 root in the forest will run from one to fifty years old. I have dug 

 several specimens thirty and some forty and fifty years old. The 



