420      Drug  and  Medicinal-Plant  Investigations.  {^p/e^befffm 
sporadic  experiments  by  individuals,  which  have  not  greatly 
affected  the  market  as  a  whole,  little  has  been  accomplished,  and 
the  last  census  shows  a  very  large  importation  of  articles  of  this 
nature.  This  desire  on  the  part  of  far-sighted  men  connected  with 
the  drug  business  in  this  country  for  a  thoroughgoing  attempt  to 
develop  drug  cultivation  as  an  American  industry,  has  been  indi- 
cated in  resolutions  before  pharmaceutical  conventions  and  other 
bodies  of  like  nature.  The  drug-plant  investigations  of  the  Bureau 
of  Plant  Industry  have  been  reorganized,  and,  in  response  to  the 
demands  of  the  times,  are  concerned  with  the  problems  of  our  crude 
drug  supply. 
The  work  begun  includes  the  cultivation  of  a  considerable  number 
ot  the  most  important  plants  capable  of  growth  under  American 
conditions  of  climate  and  soil  in  widely  separated  parts  of  the  coun- 
try. The  kinds  of  plants  are  belladonna,  hyoscyamus,  stramonium, 
digitalis,  aconite,  arnica,  the  opium  poppy  and  licorice.  Trial  plats 
of  these  plants  have  been  started  in  Florida,  North  Carolina,  at 
Washington,  D.  C. ;  in  Massachusetts,  Vermont,  Wisconsin  and 
Washington  (both  east  and  west  of  the  Cascades).  The  information 
to  be  derived  from  widely  separated  experiments  will  doubtless 
enable  us  to  judge  in  what  part  or  parts  of  the  country  the  particu- 
lar plants  in  question  will  reach  their  best  development.  In  order 
*  to  give  larger  amounts  of  material  for  laboratory  study,  half-acre 
plats  of  a  number  of  these  drugs  are  being  provided  at  Washington, 
D.  C,  and  at  Dover,  Mass.  A  careful  assay  of  these  drugs  for  the 
active  principles  will  be  made  in  the  hope  of  gaining  a  rough  idea 
of  the  quality  of  the  drug  produced  under  the  different  conditions 
here  concerned.  This  will,  of  course,  need  to  be  repeated  for  a 
number  of  years  in  order  to  eliminate  special  influences  of  the 
seasons.  The  Bureau  of  Chemistry  will  co-operate  with  the  Bureau 
of  Plant  Industry  providing  for  a  careful  assaying  of  the  samples 
sent  in  from  the  field.  There  is  also  contemplated  in  connection 
with  this  work  a  pharmacological  study  of  drugs  wherever  physio- 
logical tests  are  desirable  to  support  the  other  work. 
The  questions  first  to  be  investigated  concern  very  practical  mat- 
ters. The  time  of  collection  of  the  drug  will  be  carefully  investi- 
gated. In  the  case  of  leaf  drugs  the  plan  provides  for  the  collec- 
tion of  samples  at  different  stages  of  development  and  for  their 
careful  assay  for  the  active  principle.    Thus  we  shall  be  able  with 
