AmbecUr'i9i8arm 'J  Growing  Medicinal  Plants  in  America.  869 
manently  interested  in  medicinal  plants  produced  in  this  country 
he  must  be  assured  of  a  fairly  large  and  dependable  sdurce  of  supply. 
For  this  reliance  must  be  placed  upon  well-equipped  growers  who 
have  sufficient  capital  to  carry  on  the  enterprise  effectively." 
Still  another  writer  on  this  subject  has  recently  published  the 
following  comments  :3  "  In  the  strictly  pharmaceutical  field  the 
shortage  of  crude  drugs  has  been  felt  more  or  less  keenly  since  1914, 
and  much  misinformation  and  little  information  of  value  have  been 
Fig.  5.    Harvesting  digitalis  leaves. 
circulated  on  the  subject.  Stocks  of  many  crude  drugs  have  been 
exhausted,  and  the  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants  has  not  as  yet 
assumed  any  great  proportions  in  the  United  States.  Those  drugs 
which  were  obtained  from  Europe  were  not  cultivated,  but  grew 
wild  there.  It  was  therefore  a  simple  matter  to  have  them  gath- 
ered and  prepared  for  market  at  comparatively  small  cost.  The  cul- 
tivation of  medicinal  plants  in  the  United  States  requires  expert 
labor,  the  production  of  artificial  conditions  of  soil  and  moisture  in 
order  to  provide  as  nearly  as  possible  the  conditions  under  which 
3  Journal  Franklin  Institute,  vol.  185,  No.  3,  p.  435. 
