598 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



insisting that it does not possess the medicinal properties, and can 

 not safely be substituted for the "true." (B. P. I. B. 189.) 



Ginseng. The efforts of the Department of Agriculture in 

 encouraging the cultivation of ginseng have met with gratifying 

 success. An investigation of the subject was begun in 1893 and a 

 report issued in the following year. At that time the Department 

 announced the cultivation of the root as feasible, but could of course 

 give no information as to the manner in which cultivated root 

 would be received in the Chinese market. During the recent years, 

 however, experimentation in ginseng culture has gone steadily on. 

 The cultivated product has been marketed, and the commercial 

 status of cultivated American ginseng established. First-class cul- 

 tivated roots, dried, have been selling at $5.50 to $6 per pound, 

 slightly in advance of the best wild root. The Department, there- 

 fore, fully indorsed the cultivation of American ginseng as an ad- 

 ditional resource of the American farmer. The price of ginseng, 

 American exports of which average more than half a million 

 dollars annually, has more than quadrupled in the past thirty 

 years, so that its cultivation, as urged some years ago, has now be- 

 come profitable. It is clear from this and many similar cases that 

 the native drug industry is capable of either decline or improve- 

 ment, according to the way in which it is handled. There is a 

 recognized fancy in China in the matter of ginseng. The southern 

 provinces, such as Kwangtung, Kwangsi, and Fukien, take white 

 only; whereas the central provinces, such as Kiangsu, Anhui, Hu- 

 nan, and Hupeh, prefer the red; and, to satisfy the latter taste, 

 brown instead of white sugar is used for coating the roots while 

 they are being steamed, thereby imparting a pale, reddish tint to the 

 product. (Y. B. 1898, '99, 1904.) 



The American ginseng is a perennial herb, propagated from 

 tne roots, which send up each year a new stem bearing at the top 

 leaves, flowers, and finally berries. Plants vary from six to twenty-four 

 inches in height, sometimes reaching a height of two and a half feet 

 to the tops of the fruit cluster. The leaves vary in number with 

 age. The first year a single one with three leaflets is produced. 

 The second year three leaves develop, each with from three to five 

 leaflets. Subsequently, in cultivated plants at least, the number of 

 both leaves and leaflets increases with age, some having as 

 many as seven leaves and eleven leaflets. The flower stem does not 

 appear the first year. It varies from about an inch in length, 

 to seven or eight inches in length, when it extends much above the 

 leaves. It bears, generally, an umbel of small flowers varying in 

 number from about twelve in young plants to more than a hun- 

 dred in old ones. The berries are one to four-seeded, often flat- 

 tened when ripe, with a shining surface and of a bright red color, 

 much like flowering dogwood berries. The roots are in general 

 spindle-shaped, but vary extremely with individual plants, and 

 with age of same plant. The young are more generally without 

 forks, and look much like small carrots or parsnips. 



Roots from wild plants are in some respects different from 



