354  Cultivation  of  Medicinal  Plants.      jAmA-  Jour-  JJ^rm- 
*J*'  '  J  (     August,  191o. 
have  been  under  more  or  less  extensive  cultivation  in  conjunction 
with  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 
University  of  Michigan,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. — 
The  work  of  this  institution  is  in  part  the  cultivation  of  plants  for 
student  work.  They  have  recently  acquired  eighty-five  acres  of  land, 
and  intend  to  give  attention  to  the  cultivation  of  a  larger  variety  of 
plants  upon  a  more  extended  scale. 
University  of  Nebraska,  Lincoln,  Neb. — 
This  institution  has  established  a  medicinal  garden  in  connection 
with  the  School  of  Pharmacy,  which  they  are  just  developing  upon 
a  large  scale.  They  hope  to  give  attention  especially  to  several  impor- 
tant drugs  which  are  native  of  Nebraska. 
University  of  Washington,  Seattle,  Wash.,  College  of  Pharmacy 
Department,  have  recently  extended  their  medicinal  garden  with  a 
view  of  enabling  students  not  only  to  study  as  many  as  possible  of  the 
ordinary  drug  plants  under  cultivation,  but  to  enable  the  college  to 
furnish  information  as  to  what  drug  plants  may  be  profitably  culti- 
vated on  a  commercial  scale  in  the  region  of  the  State  of  Washington. 
From  the  foregoing  list  it  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  sharp  line 
of  demarcation  between  the  small  or  teaching  garden  and  the  indus- 
trial garden,  where  the  ultimate  object  in  view  is  a  commercial  one. 
Dr.  W.  W.  Stockburger,  physiologist  in  charge  of  the  Drug  and 
Poisonous  Plant  Investigations,  has  emphasized  this  point.  He 
states  that  the  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants  should,  at  best,  be 
considered  as  a  special  enterprise,  requiring  not  only  considerable 
knowledge  and  skill,  but  a  general  grounding  in  the  fundamental 
uses  of  the  plants  themselves. 
Dr.  Stockburger  also  states  that  there  are  a  few  cases,  where 
manufacturing  chemists  have,  themselves,  undertaken  to  get  their 
own  requirements  of  certain  plants,  and  in  his  opinion  these  are 
favorable  conditions  under  which  to  secure  an  authentic  and  better 
supply  of  drugs  of  standard  quality  than  those  afforded  by  the  com- 
mercial drug  garden  operated  by  the  manufacturers  themselves. 
He  further  states  that  the  primary  interest  of  the  farmer  who 
undertakes  the  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants  is  the  profit  which  he 
can  make  out  of  them,  and  the  most  helpful  thing  that  manufacturers 
can  do  towards  promoting  the  cultivation  of  medicinal  plants  in  this 
country  is  to  recognize  the  quality  of  the  products  by  a  correspond- 
ing advance  in  price.  At  the  present  time  the  greatest  uncertainty 
prevailing  in  the  minds  of  many  who  have  considered  the  cultivation 
