234 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



Floral Edition. 



Ginseng: Some Practical Pointers on its Cultivation 



H. S. Watson, M.D., Newmarket, Ont. 





■S^v* 



Tree doctors at work. The rotted centre liol- 



lowed out of a tree In a garden in Montreal, 



preparatory to being filled with cement. 



A selection of the plants that are in- 

 tended to furnish the border having 

 been made, the next essentials are firm 

 planting, and discrimination in the 

 choice of positions, so that the effective 

 groupings and color schemes can be 

 arranged. Even the beginner in 

 gardening will be familiar with the 

 good old rule that tall growing sub- 

 jects should be placed at the back of 

 the border and low growing plants in 

 the front. But he will be wise not to 

 observe it too closely. Its adoption 

 will inevitably result in a dreary and 

 monotonous uniformity, which it 

 should be his object, in this as in all 

 other gardening operations, to avoid. 

 By all means let him place his holly- 

 hocks and rudbeckias towards the back, 

 but do not let him hide his early 

 flowering irises, his coreopsis or his 

 choicest Michaelmas daisies in such a 

 manner that their full beauty is obscur- 

 ed. Let him break up his border by 

 judicious planting. A well-arranged 

 border is like a shifting kaleidoscope, 

 but to realize this constant variety the 

 color, height, and habit of each indivi- 

 dual plant need to be studied. 



The propagation of paeonies from 

 seed is a slow matter, for it takes four 

 or five years for a paeony to grow from 

 the seed to the blooming period, and 

 even then it will hardly repay the trou- 

 ble, for the chances are all against pro- 

 ducing anything worth while. — J. H. 

 Bennett, Barrie, Ont. 



I HAVE been interested in ginseng 

 growing for the past ten years, 

 and have found it exceedingly in- 

 teresting and also profitable. 



Notwithstanding the fact that I have 

 many reverses due to inexperience, I 

 have still continued, with a good de- 

 gree of success. I hope that this article 

 may be of use to some who are starting 

 out in the business, and may save them 

 much expense, loss and worry. 



Cultivation. 



Select a sand loam soil, cultivated 

 to a depth of from ten to fifteen inches. 

 To enrich the soil, use well-rotted 

 manure, preferably from the cow 

 stable, also fine, rotted wood, chip-dirt 

 and leaf-mold from the woods if pro- 

 curable, and mix thoroughly with the 

 soil. 



Make your beds four feet six inches 

 wide, and any length you may wish. 

 They will hold nine rows, six inches 

 apart lengthwise, and set plants six 

 inches apart each way. Some prefer 

 them eight inches apart lengthwise in 

 the rows. 



Make the aisles at least eighteen 

 inches wide and raise the beds as much 

 as six inches higher than the bottom 

 of the path between them, in order 

 to procure free drainage. Select your 

 ground where the water will not stand 

 in the spring or at any other season 

 of the year. 



I lost about five thousand four-year- 

 old plants one spring in that way. 

 Don't do the same thing; it is too ex- 

 pensive. 



Shading. 



Lath shading is the best to use in 

 open cultivation. Put your lath up in 

 sections, made by nailing four-foot lath 

 on 21/2-in. by 1-in. strips. Set it on edge 

 with the same material nailed on the 

 ends, which you will find the easiest 

 to handle if made about twelve feet 

 long. Nail the lath not more than one- 

 quarier of an inch apart. 



"Wire these sections to 2 x 4 in. scant- 

 ling nailed to the tops of posts at least 

 six feet high above the surface of the 

 beds. The higher the posts the better 

 to prevent Altenaria Blight (which I 

 have never had on account of my high 

 shading), which comes from dampness 

 and lack of free circulation of air. 



Seed Propagation. 



Gather your seeds as soon as ripe or 

 when they begin to fall to the ground. 

 This is from the first week until the 

 end of September, owins to the seasoii 

 in this section of Ontario. The season 

 is later in other parts of America, I 

 suppose. 



Place your berries in a box or barrel 

 between layers of dry sand, well sifted 

 through a very fine screen. I use the 

 ordinary mosquito wire on a wooden 

 frame. After four or five weeks I pat 

 them through the same screen, using 

 water to carry through the sand and 

 pulp, and the seeds remain in the 

 screen. 



I then make a box large enough to 

 hold my seeds and about four times 

 the quantity of soil. A hole is dug 

 deep enough to hold the box, with 

 about six inches of earth above the top. 

 Nail wire netting on the open bottom 

 and place the box in the hole. Sift the 

 sand and dirt, one-third of the former 

 to two-thirds of the latter, into th3 

 box about one inch deep. 



Put in a layer of seed and alternate 

 the seed and dirt till completed. Then 

 cover with netting and then with earth. 

 The netting above allows of free drain- 

 age below and moisture from above, 

 and keeps out mice. Allow the seed +0 

 remain from the fall they are gathered 

 until the following fall, when you sift 

 again and sow in nursery beds.' 



Nursery Beds. 



Make your nursery the .same as the 

 other beds, only have the dirt as finely 

 pulverized as possible. Sow the seed 

 so they will not be too thick, say three 

 or four to the inch, and cover 

 about two inches with finely-pulverized 

 rich soil. Cover with very fine leaf 

 mold, and when one or two vears old 

 transplant to the permanent beds. 



Covering. 



To cover your plants for winter, use 

 wood-leaves three or four inches deep, 

 and allow them to remain till the fol- 

 lowing summer. If they matted down 

 during the winter, stir them up as early 

 in the spring as possible, to prevent 

 smothering the plants. 



I have found ginseng a profitable 

 crop, requiring but little labor and 

 only a small amount of land. One acre 

 will contain about 120,000 plants. 



I have used for the past five years 

 the natural woods and shade, but I be- 

 lieve it is overbalanced by the rapid 

 growth under artificial shade. The 

 roots of the trees take up too much 

 moisture and substance from the soil 

 to promote the rapid growth of the 

 ginseng roots. 



The growing of ginseng will be 

 found a most healthful and pleasing 

 as well as profitable occupation for any 

 person in delicate health, as they will, 

 when they become interested, spend a 

 great amount of time in the garden, 

 watching the growth and development 

 of their enterprise. 



