Am\utuust"  Srj      Cultivation  of  Medicinal  Plants.  345 
of  drug-  plants  for  the  classroom.  Little  or  no  attention  can  be  given 
to  any  one  species,  nor  can  any  investigations  with  economic  ends  be 
made.  The  "  botanic  gardens,"  so-called,  are  not  likely  to  solve  the 
problem ;  their  work  on  the  present  basis  is  to  grow  and  study  speci- 
men plants. 
Without  some  special  stimulus  we  can  look  for  but  little  help 
from  the  agricultural  colleges  and  farms.  The  problem  confronting 
these  investigators  is  to  improve  present  agricultural  methods,  in 
order  to  make  the  farming  more  profitable.  What  is  needed  is  the 
establishment  of  industrial  gardens  especially  designed  for  the  growth 
of  medicinal  plants.  This  would  necessitate  several  acres  of  ground 
in  which  cultivations  of  a  variety  of  plants  can  be  made,  in  a  small 
way  at  first,  extending  as  the  work  develops  to  cultivations  under 
conditions  looking  towards  commercial  products.  In  a  measure  we 
need  the  methods  of  the  agricultural  farm  adapted  to  medicinal  plants. 
For  information  we  may  turn  to  the  avenues  from  which  our  supplies 
have  been  obtained  in  the  past. 
At  present  there  are  a  number  of  successful  growers  of  strictly 
medicinal  plants  on  the  British  Islands.  Familiar  names  are  those  of 
Ransome  &  Son,  Hitchin ;  Squire  &  Son,  and  Stafford,  Allen  &  Son, 
Bedfordshire,  England.  In  many  instances  the  work  of  cultivation 
is  connected  with  the  manufacture  of  medicinal  extracts  from  the 
plant.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  some  of  these  growers  carefully  pre- 
pare the  leaves  of  digitalis,  hyoscyamus,  belladonna,  etc.,  and  sell 
them  at  high  prices  to  American  buyers.  The  portion  of  the  plants 
which  the  American  rejects,  they  make  into  extracts  and  other  com- 
pounds for  home  consumption. 
In  England,  as  well  as  on  the  continent,  the  industry  of  drug 
growing  and  drug  gathering  is  being  crowded  more  and  more  from 
old  centres  into  regions  where  labor  is  cheap.  Wild  plants  are 
gathered  by  a  lower  stratum  of  peasants,  and  the  tendency  to  secure 
cheap  labor  and  keep  prices  down  militates  against  any  improvement 
in  quality.  Even  before  the  present  upheaval  in  these  countries,  the 
available  supply  of  many  crude  drugs  was  not  on  the  increase.  Re- 
gions where  drugs  were  once  gathered  are  now  occupied  either  by 
villages  and  factories,  or  cultivated  farms.  Drug  plants  were  exter- 
minated and  the  gatherers  moved  on.  The  main  producer,  the 
peasant  gatherer,  is  an  ignorant  person  who  knows  little  and  whose 
desires  are  small.  He  has  only  one  market  and  is  satisfied  to  take 
whatever  price  is  offered  him.    As  an  exception  to  this,  however, 
