20 GINSENG. 



PART il. 



CHAPTER IIX. 



GINSENG. 



HISTORY OF ITS CULTURE. 



Prompted by the large demand for the article and the steadi- 

 ly increasing price paid for it, the possibility of its culture was 

 taken up for investigation some years ago. 



An investigation of the subject was begun by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture in 1893 and a report issued the following year. 

 At the time the Department announced the cultivation of the root 

 as feasible but of course could give no information as to the man- 

 ner in which the cultivated root would be received in the Chinese 

 market. Experimentation in ginseng went steadily on. The cul- 

 tivated product has been marketed, and the commercial status of 

 cultivated American ginseng established. First class cultivated 

 roots, dried, have been selling during the past five or six years at 

 $6.00 to $8.25 per pound, slightly in advance of the best wild root; 

 besides the larger buyers have paid the transportation charges on 

 shipments of five pounds or over. 



In 1898 the Department ofBcially endorsed the cultivation 

 of American ginseng as an additional resource of the American 

 farmer and gardener. (See year book of the Department of Agri- 

 culture of 1898, page 56). 



While some fifteen years ago, when the first attempts at 

 growing the plant were made, the results were not very encourag- 

 ing, it is now found that those who stuck to it, eventually mas- 



