PHARMACAL PLANTS AND THEIE CULTURE. 19 



In most instances, a certain amount of garden plat and more exten- 

 sive field experimenting is necessary to determine the best commercially 

 operative methods of procedure, even after being fully informed as to 

 the experimental and commercial operations which may have been 

 carried out successfully in other states or in foreign countries. It is, 

 indeed, important to know how belladonna is grown in Germany, in 

 England, and in the eastern United States, but the methods as em- 

 ployed in those countries do not apply in detail to Californian conditions. 



The purely experimental work should be done in botanical gardens 

 created for that purpose. The experimental work in such gardens 

 should be dominated by an economical, practical method. All of the 

 other features should be made subsidiary. In other words, the botanical 

 garden should have an economically commercial significance. Its chief 

 function should be to develop the economic botanical resources of the 

 country. To this end, the garden should be divided into two distinct 

 parts. In one should be carried on the purely experimental work- 

 that is, experimental work having a practical significance. In the 

 second part should be carried on test plantings on a practically economic 

 commercial basis. Such gardens need not be large nor expensive, and 

 they should be distributed geographically and climatologically, in order 

 that the greatest good might be accomplished with a minimum of 

 expenditure. The idea is in the main carried out by Kew with its sub- 

 stations and by the experimental stations of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, excepting that the mistake is made of controlling 

 substations from one central point. In fact, as far as the United States 

 are concerned, each State should support, direct, and control its own 

 experimental work, with, of course, a cooperative relationship with the 

 experimental gardens or stations of other states. A very efficient state 

 garden of this kind does not require more than ten acres of ground, a 

 propagating house, a tool shed, an office with store rooms, a competent 

 director, one technical assistant, two or three skilled gardeners, and the 

 necessary additional equipment. The annual cost of maintaining such 

 a garden in high operative efficiency need not exceed $10,000. The 

 financial gain to the State to be derived from such a garden would soon 

 amount to millions of dollars annually. From five to twenty-five prac- 

 tical tests should be carried on at one time, and perhaps two or three 

 tests would be concluded each year. No time and effort should be 

 wasted on useless things, as botanical freaks, botanical curios, purely 

 technical research without practical significance, theoretical research 

 and experiments, etc. Neither should time and effort be wasted on 

 simple experiments which can be done by any agriculturist in any field 

 or garden. Also, such gardens must be in charge of competent directors, 

 men who by technical training and practical experience are qualified 

 to direct such experiments as will bring practical net results in the 

 shortest possible time. 



