620 
Belladonna  Cultivation. 
{Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
September,  1920. 
in  full  bloom  and  the  cutting  of  the  tops  was  in  process.  In  certain 
fields,  plants  of  two  and  three  years'  growth  were  seen  and  in  others 
those  of  the  first  year.  All  of  these  presented  a  healthy  aspect,  be- 
speaking care  and  the  application  of  scientific  methods  to  prevent  the 
ravages  of  insects  and  to  obtain  the  best  results  in  yield  and  product. 
We  were  equally  fortunate  in  being  able  to  observe  the  methods 
used  for  the  extraction  of  the  green  herb  and  of  the  roots  in  the 
laboratory.  The  Lloyd  method  of  alkaloidal  extraction  and  the 
Lloyd  apparatus  for  the  use  and  recovery  of  the  volatile  solvents 
being  used  with  satisfactory  results. 
We  appreciate  highly  the  courtesy  shown  and  also  the  oppor- 
tunity of  inspecting  the  factory  and  seeing  at  first  hand  the  scientific 
methods  adopted  by  these  manufacturers  throughout  their  plant  from 
the  purification  of  the  water  supply  used  to  the  testing,  chemically  and 
bacteriologically,  of  the  finished  products. 
G.  M.  B. 
BELLADONNA  CULTIVATION  IN  A  PRACTICAL  WAY. 
By  Fred  B.  Kii^mer,  Ph.M.,  and  Ralph  O.  Smith,  Ph.D. 
The  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants  has  been  urged  in  the  pages 
of  the  Journal  for  a  generation.  It  required  a  world  catastrophe, 
however,  to  really  quicken  interest  and  place  it  upon  a  stable  basis. 
In  the  earlier  period  of  the  war  hundreds  of  growers,  either  in  a  large 
or  a  small  way,  embarked  in  the  enterprise  without  experience 
and  without  adequate  patience  to  obtain  results.  Under  these 
conditions  results  in  many  instances  were  disappointing. 
A  notable  feature  of  the  work  has  been  that  the  growers  who 
have  succeeded  were  those  who  approached  the  problem  from  an 
entirely  different  angle.  They  were  obliged  to  eliminate  the  fac- 
tor of  cost,  and  to  solve  their  problems  in  a  spirit  of  service,  rather 
than  in  a  spirit  of  gain.  It  was  necessary  to  produce  drugs,  what- 
ever the  cost,  and  they  have  been  produced.  It  has  been  worth 
the  effort,  and  the  world  has  been  enriched  by  the  outlay. 
The  World  War  caused  a  scarcity  of  belladonna,  as  well  as  of  other 
drugs,  and  the  culture  of  this  plant  has  become  quite  extensive 
throughout  the  Unked  States. 
The  records  which  follow  embrace  a  summary  of  belladonna 
cultivation  at  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  which  was  begun  in 
