LETTERS FROM GROWERS. 109 



attained. [A typical Korean ginseng root, engraved 

 from a photograph, furnished by Mr. H. P. Kelsey, is 

 shown in Fig. 18.] The shape is nearly that of the 

 matured plant. ... In the following February 

 (of the third year) the seed plants are transplanted to 

 the adjoining beds, five or six to each cross row, the 

 watering trenches being here between the plant rows. 

 In this second bed the plants remain one year, and are 

 then transplanted to the third bed, and planted still 

 farther apart in their respective rows. A year later 

 they are again transplanted, this time to their final beds, 

 where they remain two and a half or three years. 

 Generally speaking, seven years are required from the 

 time of planting until the plant is matured. After its 

 life in the seed bed, exacting care in keeping out the 

 light is not so necessary, and I noticed the swinging 

 mat was removed entirely from the fronts of sheds of 

 plants in the final beds." 



Mr. Nicholas Pike, formerly United States Consul 

 at Port Louis, Mauritius, writes of the Chinese 

 methodarthus : 



|FTwo methods of cultivating ginseng are followed 

 by the Chinese, viz., growing from seed, and trans- 

 planting young plants found in the wild state. A spot 

 is selected in the dark, damp woods, generally where 

 the soil is rich and loamy. The seeds are gathered 

 when they drop from the plant to the ground. After 

 the soil is dug over, these seeds are sown broadcast, 

 and covered with dead leaves partially decomposed. 

 This plantation they call their nursery. In from fifteen 

 to eighteen months the young shoots appear above the 

 ground, and as soon as they are two or three inches 

 high they are removed to the permanent plantation, and 

 in three years more the roots are ready for the market. 

 Whenever a root is taken from the ground a young 

 plant is set in its place, so that a plantation once formed 

 is producing all the time/' 



