VARIOUS FARM PRODUCTS 553 



WEEDS USED IN MEDICINE. 



Too much emphasis can not be placed upon the importance of 

 carefully and thoroughly drying all crude drugs, whether roots, 

 herbs, leaves, barks, flowers, or seeds. If insufficiently dried, they 

 will heat and become moldy in shipping, and the collector will 

 find his goods rejected by the drug dealer and have all his trouble 

 for nothing. Another important matter to be considered in collect- 

 ing drugs for market is freedom from foreign substances. All drugs 

 should be clean and wholesome looking and contain no admixture 

 of fragments of other plants, stones, dirt, or other impurities. A 

 bright natural color is extremely desirable in leaves, herbs, and 

 flowers, and adds much to the salability of the product. Roots may 

 be cleaned by washing, but leaves, herbs, and flowers should never 

 be washed. It is important also to collect drugs in proper season 

 only. Neglect in this respect will bring nothing but disappoint- 

 ment to the gatherer, as drugs collected out of season not only are 

 not acceptable to the dealer on account of inferior medicinal quali- 

 ties, but there will also be, in the case of roots, a greater amount of 

 shrinkage in a root dug during the growing season than will take 

 place when it is collected after growth has ceased. 



The collector should be sure that the plant he is collecting 

 is the right one. There are many plants that closely resemble one 

 another, yet one may possess medicinal properties and the other be 

 absolutely useless. Again, a plant may contain very poisonous 

 principles, and if represented to be something else, it might of 

 course do untold injury. It would therefore be best, where any 

 doubt exists, to send a specimen of the entire plant, including 

 leaves, flowers, and fruits, to a drug dealer or to the nearest State ex- 

 periment station for identification. 



After washing, the roots should be carefully dried. This can 

 best be accomplished by exposing them to light and air (not direct 

 sunlight) on racks or shelves, or on clean, well-ventilated barn floors 

 or lofts. They should be spread out thinly and turned occasionally 

 from day to day until completely cured. When this point is 

 reached, in perhaps three to six weeks, the roots will snap readily 

 when bent. During the curing process the roots, if dried out of 

 doors, should be placed under shelter at night and upon the ap- 

 proach of rainy weather. 



With some roots additional preparation is required, such as 

 slicing and the removal of fibrous rootlets. Wherever this is neces- 

 sary mention will be made of it under the descriptions of the differ- 

 ent plants. In general, it may be said that large roots should always 

 be split or sliced when green in order to facilitate drying. 



Barks. The plants considered in this chapter do not furnish 

 medicinal barks, but inasmuch as there are certain sections of the 

 country where trees furnishing such barks are rather abundant, 

 directions for their collection may not be out of place here. 



Barks of trees should be gathered in spring, when the sap 

 begins to flow, but may also be peeled in winter. In the case of the 

 coarser barks (as elm, hemlock, poplar, oak, pine, and wild cherry) 



