8 PHARMACAL PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



were abundant. Thus, carload lots of cascara bark have been supplied 

 through him to Eastern and foreign manufacturing houses. 



The general conclusions which are deduced from these conversations 

 with Mr. Week are as follows : 



The wholesale dealers, as well as wholesale manufacturers, give little 

 heed to the commercial source of the drug, manner of collecting, drying, 

 etc. They desire a clean, neat-looking article at the very lowest figure. 

 If an English house can supply digitalis leaves, horehound, and mint 

 more cheaply than a California house, then these articles will be 

 imported, even though they may have been rendered comparatively 

 inert through careless packing, storing, age, etc. A San Francisco 

 house will import horehound from England, though that commodity 

 is a common weed throughout the State. It appears that in order that 

 a drug may be profitably procured in the United States, there must 

 first be a large and reliably constant demand, and the drug must be 

 collected on a large scale with the aid of suitable mechanical appliances 

 and machinery. Collecting on a small scale is not profitable. Drying 

 must be done in the open and the drug shipped in bulk, in boxes, barrels, 

 in sacks or wrapped in burlap. Large shipments of herbs may also be 

 baled like hay and wrapped in burlap. Ounce, pound, and larger 

 retail amounts of herbs and leaves may be pressed in paper packages. 



4. What Drugs May Be Collected Profitably. From what has been 

 said it is evident that even though a medicinal plant is very common in 

 the United States, marketing the drug may not be profitable because 

 of the high cost of labor and of other conditions. This is made clear 

 in a bulletin issued by the United States Department of Agriculture on 

 the common medicinal weeds of the United States. (Alice Henkel: 

 Weeds Used in Medicine, Farmers' Bulletin No. 188, U. S. Dept. Agr., 

 1904). In this report the suggestion is made that the medicinal weeds 

 mentioned might be collected and marketed by the farmer. To this end 

 certain directions are given as to time of collecting, part of plant used, 

 curing, garbling, etc. This plan, it was hoped, would not only rid the 

 farm of the objectionable weeds, but would at the same time be a 

 source of revenue, slight though it might be. It does not seem wise 

 to give these suggestions, for several reasons: The farmer is chiefly 

 interested in his crops and other farm products, knows little or nothing 

 about drugs, can not always take the time to collect the drug at the right 

 time, and can not take the time to collect, garble and cure it properly. 

 The attempt would simply result in a poor quality of drug being placed 

 on the market. Drug-marketing should be done by those who understand 

 it and are ready to make a business of it. On studying the market 

 value of the medicinal weeds mentioned, it will be found that the average 

 price per pound of roots and leaves is from five to seven cents, a sum 



