A NEW PROFITABLE CANADIAN INDUSTRY. 



and rich. Transplanting can be done 

 in early spring, but it is said that 

 September or October is preferable. 

 The plants are set out in rows six inches 

 apart each way, putting the new bud of 

 the root stalk two or three inches below 

 the surface. Care must be taken to pre- 

 serve all the little rootlets, and all break- 

 ing or trimming of the roots in any way 

 sedulously avoided. During the grow- 

 ing season the soil between the plants 

 should be frequently stirred, and kept 

 free from weeds ; and before the ground 

 freezes the beds covered well with forest 

 leaves, upon which brush is laid to pre- 

 vent the leaves from being blown away. 

 Cattle are to be fenced out from access 

 to all beds of ginseng, for they not only 

 do great damage by trampling on the 

 beds, but also have a great fondness for 

 devouring the foliage. 



When circumstances are favorable, 

 these beds as also the seed beds are 

 made in the forest where the trees 

 afford necessary shade and there is a 

 free circulation of air. When they are 

 made in the open ground 



ARTIFICIAL SHADE 



must be provided, such that while the 

 plants have all the needed shade they 

 have also an unhindered flow of an 

 abundance of air. Mr. George Stan- 

 ton, who is probably the most success- 

 ful grower of Ginseng, secures all of 

 these essentials by the following means : 

 He sets rows of posts eight feet apart 

 and six feet apart in the row, two feet 

 deep in the ground and six feet high, 

 and braces them with strips an inch thick 

 and three inches wide, nailed upon the 

 top of the posts, and running in both 

 directions. Upon these are fastened 

 screens made of lath, having a space 

 of five-eighths of an inch between the 

 strips of lath. Screens made in the 

 same way are fastened to the sides, en- 



closing the whole from the ground up- 

 wards for three feet, the remaining three 

 feet being left open. Fig. 1403 is a 



Fig. 1403.— Ginseng.— Lattice shading fo'" 

 Ginseng beds. 



photographic representation of Mr. Stan- 

 ton's lath screened bed. In these beds 

 the plants are grown for five or six years, 

 until they attain the size requisite for 

 profitable marketing. Before that time 

 they will have reached the fruiting agei 

 when above a simple stem about a foot 

 high, bearing a whorl of three to five 

 palmate leaves composed usually of five 

 obovate pointed leaflets, appears a sim- 

 ple umbel supported by a slender pe- 

 duncle, and containing in July from 

 ten to fifty yellowish green flowers, which 

 will be succeeded by green berries that 

 in August turn at first purple, then red, 

 and at last, when perfectly ripe, scarlet. 

 These will be carefully gathered and the 

 seeds cared foi, from which enlarged 

 plantations and successive crops can be 

 secured. In the fall this part of the 

 plant which is shown in Fig. 1404, dies ; 

 that which survives, and which alone is 

 of commercial value is 



THE ROOT. 



The underground part is not wholly 

 root, that which lies just below the sur- 

 face, called root stock (rhizome), is not 

 fieshy, and is marked with scars, which 

 indicate the annual above ground growth 



311 



