PLANT PROBLEMS 73 



sagrada, Seneca snakeroot, and purple cornflower. Ginseng 

 has already been domesticated, the total yield in states east of 

 the Mississippi River being about one million dollars annually. 



A considerable portion of crude drugs used in the United 

 States is of foreign origin. To supply the home market and 

 save millions of dollars now spent on foreign drugs, the 

 Bureau has interested itself in the experimental culture of 

 these foreign plants in soil and climate similar to their own. 

 Plots of Asiatic poppy, camphor trees, cinchona, belladonna, 

 foxglove, and red peppers have been planted in suitable parts 

 of our country. 



Poisonous plants. Certain plants are poisonous either when 

 handled or eaten. For lack of statistics, no estimate can be 

 given as to the amount of damage done by them. 



Complaints have been so numerous against various plants 

 which poison man and animals, that the Government has 

 investigated them and has issued a number of bulletins on 

 poisonous plants of the United States. 1 (See Bulletin 8(>, 

 " Thirty Poisonous Plants.") 



Of the thirty plants described, about one third are weeds ; 

 the others are fungi, herbs, shrubs, and trees. The most 

 poisonous plants are mushrooms (Amanita mmcaria and 

 nita plialloides), the various species of water hemlock 

 and the loco weed (^Astragalus). Damage to the live-stock 

 business from loco weed is enormous. Colorado, in a vain 

 attempt to exterminate it, spent 1 200, 000 in bounties between 

 the years 1881 and 1895. 



1 Jhilletins from United States Department of Agriculture : 



28. Weeds and how to Kill them. 



86. Thirty Poisonous Plants. 

 188. Weeds used in Medicine. 

 279. Methods of eradicating Johnson Grass. 



Besides these, almost every state issues complete and fully illustrated bul- 

 letins on its own weeds. Canada issues weed bulletins on an elaborate scale. 



