2 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
September, 1916 
to the grower unless a drug 
manufacturer will buy it for use 
in medicine. 
If is entirely possible, for ex- 
ample, to grow belladonna from 
which is derived atropine and 
other alkaloids very valuable in 
medicine. The total amount of 
belladonna plants the entire 
country uses, however, could all 
be grown on a few hundred acres. 
Because of the present interrup- 
tion in the supply of belladonna, 
a few' domestic growers have 
made a profit recently from this 
crop. A slight expansion of the 
industry would quickly increase 
the supply beyond the demand 
and this, together with importa- 
tion. when resumed, might soon 
glut the local market and leave 
little or no profit to the raiser, 
unless an export market w'ere 
developed. 
Digitalis, although one of the 
most important and valuable of 
heart tonics, as a crop has rela- 
tively small monetary value. 
The drug plant specialists who 
have been developing this plant 
and testing possibilities of its 
culture in this country have done 
so, not merely with the idea of 
fostering an industry, but be- 
cause this plant is so important 
in saving human lives that should 
all supplies be cut off a serious 
calamity would result. For the 
same reason the specialists have 
been working with many other 
drug plants. It w r as believed that 
the drug specialists should be 
ready to raise these plants in this 
country if for any reason the 
foreign supply should be entirely 
cut off. 
For years, therefore, the De- 
partment has been producing 
many of these plants experi- 
mentally, but when the supply 
of certain of these drugs failed or 
their prices reached prohibitive 
figures, a few' skilled growers, 
with the advice of the Depart- 
ment, were able to raise small 
quantities of some of the more 
important drugs needed in the 
present emergency. Thymol, 
widely used for antiseptic pur- 
poses, is a drug manufactured 
in Germany from a seed grown 
in India. A few 7 days after the 
interruption of imports the price 
leaped from $2 to $17 a pound. 
The Department, how'ever, had 
been experimenting with a com- 
mon weed known as horsemint, 
which grows readily in the South, 
and yields this substance. This 
horsemint w 7 as brought into cul- 
tivation, its drug-bearing quality 
improved, and a simple process 
for manufacturing thymol from 
it developed, with the result last 
year that there w 7 as produced 
commercially a small quantity 
of this drug. The industry, how'- 
ever, can not be widely extended 
because the total consumption, 
as indicated by previous reports, 
is only about 17,000 pounds a 
year, an amount which can be 
produced probably on less than 
1,000 acres. 
Lemon grass, producing lemon 
grass oil used widely by soap and 
perfume makers, can be grown 
in Florida on land not suitable 
for citrus fruits. At most, how'- 
ever, only about $100,000 worth 
of this oil is used per year in this 
country, and even if none w'ere 
imported, only 2,000 or 3,000 
acres of the grass could be raised 
without overproduction. 
Red pepper, used both as a 
drug and as a condiment, seems 
to offer one of the most promis- 
ing fields for replacing an im- 
ported by a domestic article. In 
1915 in South Carolina 118 acres, 
yielding 152,000 pounds, w'ere 
harvested. There is indication 
that this year nearly 500 acres 
may be devoted to this crop. As 
1 acre produces nearly 1,300 
pounds and our total imports in 
1914 w ere only 8,829,487 pounds, 
it readily can be seen that a 
limited acreage w'ould provide 
all the pepper this country ordi- 
narily consumes. 
In addition to the products 
mentioned, there are hundreds 
of other drugs, oils, and spices 
which are imported and which 
it is possible for this country to 
prodcue for itself. In the aggre- 
gate, the value of these imported 
articles is rather imposing, as 
the figures indicate that this 
country has been bringing in and 
using about $25,000,000 annually 
of the various drugs, oils, and 
condiments. Much of this money 
undoubtedly can be kept at 
home. The mistake made by 
most people who consider raising 
these crops is that they are 
inclined to consider them as 
staple crops, whereas the do- 
mestic demand for them is rel- 
atively small, and no foreign 
market has been developed for 
them by Americans. 
At the same time those in 
charge of the work realize that 
here and there in our agriculture, 
w'here soil and climatic and other 
conditions are right, there is 
room for certain small industries. 
For many years there has been a 
distinct tendency for agricul- 
turists to direct their energies 
along limited lines. This is indi- 
cated most clearly by certain 
types of agriculture prevailing 
in the South, where the farmers 
have confined their efforts very 
largely to the cultivation of a 
single crop. These small crops 
may therefore offer to a few of 
our farmers opportunities in 
highly specialized lines of pro- 
duction w'hich w'ill divert to a 
certain degree the activities of 
capital and labor from some of 
the crow'ded industries and also 
supply peculiar products for 
which the country has been 
spending money abroad. The 
ida 
Iv l 
an 
liSCC 
lie 
hi 
fate 
flit! 
Hi 
tan 
•>l< 
an 
'in 
Ha i 
da 
(Continued on page 11) 
