PHARMACAL PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. 
11 
thium, rosemary, and many others, should not be very profitably 
cultivated on a large scale. Insect flowers ( Pyrethrum ), lavendula, 
hops, and others are now being grown very successfully in the State. 
Inasmuch as the work is very largely in the experimental stage, it is 
desirable to begin with perhaps five or six different species of medicinal 
plants. In the course of a few years it will be found which plants are 
best suited to the particular soil, climatic condition, and temperature, 
and finally the grower will, in all probability, limit himself to those 
species giving the best promise as to net earnings or gain, per acre. It 
will be necessary to develop the most suitable methods of cultivation, 
fertilization of soil, rotation of crops, collecting, garbling, drying, and 
marketing. Each species of medicinal plant will require its special care 
and attention, just as with the different field, orchard, and garden plants. 
For detailed and specific instructions the available literature should be 
consulted, and, for the rest, experience must be the guide. 
6. General Suggestions on the Cultural Methods. — On looking over 
the existing agricultural, horticultural, and arboricultural resources of 
the State, one is astonished at the variety of crops grown successfully. 
With few exceptions the plant-cultural enterprises are conducted on an 
enormous scale as compared with similar European efforts, or even with 
those of the Eastern and Southern States. This brief statement should 
serve as a significant hint to those who have the ambition and courage 
to begin the cultivation of medicinal plants in California. 
Random, unintelligent, illy-considerecl attempts are to be discouraged, 
as they lead to mistaken conclusions and to failures. Excepting perhaps 
in a few instances, it is not advised to grow medicinal plants as a side 
line or “small crop,” nor is it advised that those unfamiliar with field 
cultural operations, chemistry of soil, the chemistry, constituents, and 
physiological action of vegetable drugs, should initiate or superintend 
such cultural efforts. 
In order to avoid the unprofitable preliminary experimenting above 
hinted at, it is very strongly urged that beginnings be made with 
well-known and highly important medicinal plants, as digitalis, aconite, 
belladonna, scopola, rheum, golden seal, and others. AVliile it is pos- 
sible to get valuable information from books, correspondence, and 
hearsay, with regard to the desirable cultural methods, and, accordingly, 
to make fairly successful beginnings, it would nevertheless be very 
desirable to send qualified men to countries where these various plants 
are being grown successfully, with instructions to remain at least several 
months, to work in the fields and to collect concise and reliable data with 
regard to the most successful and most profitable methods employed. 
On returning, these observers should be placed in charge of the field 
work, with specific instructions to adopt, to the best of their ability, the 
foreign methods to American (Californian) conditions and require- 
