December, 1917 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



1G1 



Of the above list, Hydrastis is one of the 

 most interesting. It is native to the Amer- 

 ican woods, is not found in Europe, and hence 

 is not influenced by foreign competition. 

 Not many years ago this plant was in such 

 quantities in a native state that its price in 

 the crude form rarely went above thirty cents 

 per pound. But the plant has been collected 

 with utter disregard to any laws of conserva- 

 tion until there is now an actual scarcity of it 

 and the normal price is somewhere about four 

 dollars per pound. The war price has gone 

 considerably above this figure. 



Hydrastis. In the commercial production 

 of Hydrastis the effort is usually made to 

 imitate the natural conditions of growth as 

 closely as possible, and many acres of it have 

 been planted in woodlots, and allowed to go as 

 it would for a period of years. This method 

 is to be condemned, for while it is cheap it is 

 very difficult to obtain satisfactory roots under 

 such conditions, and there is usually more 

 time taken to mature a crop than when grown 

 under the artificial conditions of a ginseng 

 house. 



Such a house is constructed of lath in a 

 manner which will give approximately 75 

 per cent, shade. The beds are regularly laid 

 out as in a greenhouse and conditions are 

 much more nearly under control than in the 

 woods. Furthermore, marketable roots may 

 be produced in four years as against five or six 

 in the woods. The plant is usually propa- 

 gated by root cuttings or by buying two-year 

 old plants from some dealer who is making a 

 specialty of hydrastis and is set in the beds 

 made of exceedingly rich wood mold. Little 

 work is then necessary except to keep the beds 

 clear of weeds until harvest time which is de- 

 termined by the size of the roots. Commercial 

 roots should be at least one half inch in di- 

 ameter. They are dug in the fall or in early 

 spring when the plant is dormant, cleaned, 

 and cut in lengths of about eight inches and 

 packed in bundles of a hundred or more. 

 There is some evidence that diseases are 

 attacking hydrastis in much the same manner 

 as ginseng was attacked and every hydrastis 

 grower should be well on the lookout for 

 the first signs of such trouble and destroy any 

 plant that looks suspicious. At the present 

 time there is not enough known about these 

 fungous troubles to give directions for their 

 treatment. 



Belladonna. This is next in importance, 

 the normal price being about thirty cents per 

 pound and the war price between one and two 

 dollars. Belladonna is a very difficult crop 

 to grow chiefly because not enough is known 

 about its horticultural requirements, and 

 propagation material is very difficult to obtain. 

 There have recently been sales of belladonna 

 seed at which prices of #80 per pound have 

 been paid. While the common name of this 

 plant is "deadly nightshade" it must be well 

 understood that it is not Solanum dulcamara 

 which is known as "deadly nightshade" in 

 some sections of the country but Atropa 

 belladonna. Belladonna seed must be sown in 

 the greenhouse about the first of January in 

 flats containing a rich sandy soil mixture. It is 

 very slow in germinating and only a compar- 

 atively few of the seeds will produce seedlings. 

 A fifty per cent, germination is considered by 

 some growers as being satisfactory, and many 

 get less than that. Transplant the seedlings 

 into pots as soon as they are large enough to 

 move and keep in the house at a temperature 



of about 60 and then move to the fields 

 when the weather has settled in the spring 

 and the ground is warm. It is very advisable 

 to make the field transplanting on a cloudy 

 day when the soil is moist, since the seedlings 

 wilt quickly and are very difficult to handle 

 after they have wilted. The crop must be 

 cultivated as for corn and watched very care- 

 fully for blossom buds. As soon as these are 

 ready to burst, start the first picking of 

 leaves. Unless the crop is a large one, it pays 

 to harvest by hand-picking the leaves into 

 sacks which are at once moved to a drying 

 shed. A barn may be used for this purpose 

 provided it has good ventilation, and is very 

 much improved if there are wire racks ar- 

 ranged so that the leaves may be suspended 

 and receive air from all sides. It is also 

 necessary to turn the picked leaves two or 

 three times each day for the first two or three 

 days to prevent molding or fermentation. 



This drying operation is one in which the 

 American growers have a great deal to learn. 

 A well dried leaf will have such a high chloro- 

 phyl content that it will be almost as green 

 after it is dried as it was in the fresh state. 

 With the ordinary air drying methods which 

 are used in this country it is practically im- 

 possible to obtain these results. 



If the plants are well handled it is possible 

 to get three crops the first year and four the 

 second, and after the growing season of the 

 second year the roots are dug in the fall and 

 they are then dried and marketed much the 

 same as hydrastis roots. In a great many 

 localities it is very difficult to properly winter 

 over the belladonna root even though they be 

 heavily mulched with straw or other material. 

 It is thererore profitable to take the root up 

 in the fall and reset it in the spring if the area 

 involved be small enough to permit of this 

 operation. 



Hyoscyamus is probably the most difficult 

 drug crop that may be grown in the temperate 

 regions, and for this very reason is one of the 

 most satisfactory to produce from the stand- 

 point of financial return. The seed is usually 

 harder to germinate than that of belladonna 

 and the germination is generally poorer. 

 For best results, the soil in the seed flats may 

 be slightly more sandy and the flats well 

 shaded until the first seedlings appear. They 

 are then handled in the same manner as 

 belladonna. After the plants are set in the 

 field the grower has a continual fight with a 

 wide variety of insects. It is a common ex- 

 perience where there is hyoscyamus growing 

 near a potato patch to see the potato beetles 

 leave the potato plants and go to the hyoscya- 

 mus. The crop must therefore be sprayed 

 once each week with arsenate of lead and the 

 cultivation must be shallow enough not to 

 disturb the roots in any manner. It is useless 

 and a waste of time to sow the seed of either 

 hyoscyamus or belladonna directly in the 

 field. It is practically impossible to produce 

 a crop in this manner although a great deal 

 of good seed is annually wasted in such futile 

 attempts. 



Aconite is difficult to make germinate, but 

 once that has been accomplished the seedlings 

 are easy to handle and a good crop may be 

 expected. 



Digitalis (the Common Foxglove) is simple 

 of culture although in many sections a great 

 deal of trouble is experienced in wintering the 

 roots. This is not the serious feature it once 

 was, since the new Pharmacopoeia has made 



official the leaves of the first year plant, and 

 the crop is so easily grown that there is 

 no objection to growing it as an annual, except 

 when the seed is wanted. 



Cannibis is perhaps less difficult than digi- 

 talis, and the same treatment as given to field 

 corn will usually produce a good crop of can- 

 nabis. It must be remembered in this con- 

 nection that the sex of the cannabis is distinct, 

 the males having a very different appearance 

 in the field as compared with the female. 

 Only the female plant has any medicinal 

 value. Some cannabis growers are now re- 

 moving the males from the field as soon as 

 fertilization has been accomplished thereby 

 removing from the final product practically 

 all of the waste material. 



Plants that Yield Oils 



TV/TANY of the volatile oil plants and the 

 ■*•»■* old garden herbs are subjects of inter- 

 est and if the grower has had experience in 

 handling them, they may be made profitable. 

 Sage, calendula, horehound, coriander, pen- 

 nyroyal, wormwood, tansy, rue, etc., etc., 

 all give promise of again coming into promi- 

 nence, although in some cases the profit would 

 necessarily come from the distilled oils which 

 would involve the use of a still in the garden. 

 This is not an operation which would make 

 the growing of these interesting plants pro- 

 hibitive. 



Marketing a Real Problem 



TT IS more difficult to market a drug 

 ■*■ crop successfully than it is to grow it. The 

 most usually successful way of disposing of a 

 well cured crop is to send a small sample to 

 each of four or five commercial houses which 

 are regular buyers of the particular drug in 

 question. The novice will be surprised at 

 the wide range in the offers which he will re- 

 ceive, some being discouragingly low, and none 

 as high as the grower had hoped. The price 

 paid for these crops is based on the amount 

 of active principle present. 



There is not enough known of this subject 

 to enable any one to state what brings about 

 high or low yields; but it is very definitely 

 known, that certain fields will yield a high 

 atropine content in belladonna for example, 

 while other fields nearby will produce plants 

 so low in atropine that their harvest will bring 

 no profit. The new grower therefore will 

 plant only a small crop the first year so that 

 he may have some idea of what to expect 

 from his particular conditions. 



The Outlook 



/GROWING medicinal plants must be 

 ^-* done in such a manner as to insure a 

 continual supply of crude drugs of high qual- 

 ity. There never was as opportune a time 

 for such work as at the present, since the 

 greatest importations of crude drugs have 

 come in years past from England, France, 

 Belgium, and Germany. There will there- 

 fore be a period even after the war has stopped 

 when little if any crude drugs will be. im- 

 ported. 



The business of growing drugs is not one 

 which would appeal to the farmer, the ama- 

 teur gardener or the corner druggist with a 

 back yard, but rather is one which gives 

 promise to the man who regards it as a busi- 

 ness, and who is fitted by reason of capital 

 and previous training to follow it through to 

 success. 



