CULTIVATED VERSUS WILD ROOT. 73 



eral, collected from the forests, will average an age of 

 from eight to twenty years, and it is seldom that the 

 cultivator will find these roots as large as the general 

 run of cultivated roots when they are three years old. 

 Now, by planting these wild roots, they will, as a rule, 

 bear from ten to twenty seeds to the plant, and, after 

 being planted for two years, may attain a weight of 

 from two and one-half to three ounces, green while 

 the cultivated roots, under favorable conditions, should 

 bear from sixty to eighty seeds to the plant the fourth 

 year, and from one hundred to one hundred and twen- 

 ty-five thereafter, and will attain a weight of from four 

 to five ounces, green, at five years old. Now, I do not 

 wish my readers to think that an entire garden of gin- 

 seng will bear this amount of seed each season, for 

 every plant does not bear seed every year, and in dig- 

 ging up a garden, while a majority of the plants will 

 have attained this large development, a portion of them 

 must be graded out and replanted; not that they are 

 not marketable, but because it is more profitable to let 

 them remain for another season or two." 



In general, the case of cultivated ginseng seems 

 to be won, but there are little points that must not be 

 overlooked ; namely, there is likely to be an overstim- 

 ulation of seed production as long as high prices 

 persist (see letters from Messrs. Eisenhauer, Wells 

 and Stanton) which will tend to impair root develop- 

 ment; the product of different growers is likely to 

 be variable until definite methods of growing are 

 agreed upon and definite grades of product made ; the 

 cultivated roots are likely to lack a flavor that the wild 

 root possesses (see letter from Messrs. Eisenhauer & 

 Co.) or, what amounts to the same thing, to possess a 

 flavor that the wild root lacks, so that the final pur- 

 chaser may not fancy it. Now is the time, therefore, 

 to establish control of the plant and to make it meet 

 the oriental requirements. 



