356 
Cultivation  of  Medicinal  Plants. 
(Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
t     August,  1915. 
to  meet  the  loss  incurred  in  such  culture  as  labor,  greenhouses,  sheds, 
etc. 
The  laboratory  of  Eli  Lilly  &  Company  has  issued  a  number  of 
very  interesting  reprints  dealing  with  their  work  upon  various  drug 
plants. 
H.  K.  Mulford  &  Company— 
In  connection  with  their  scientific  department,  H.  K.  Mulford  & 
Company  maintain  a  small  drug  farm  at  Glenolden,  Pa.,  devoted 
more  particularly  to  the  experimental  cultivation  of  digitalis,  bella- 
dopna,  hyoscyamus,  Cannabis  sativa,  and  Hydrastis  canadensis. 
In  a  paper  by  John  A.  Borneman,  published  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Pharmacy,  191 2,  page  546,  the  cultivations  are  described 
in  detail,  together  with  directions  and  suggestions  in  regard  to  the 
selection  of  soil,  time  of  planting,  collecting,  drying,  etc.  The  writer 
states  it  has  been  proved  that  cultivated  plants  yield  as  large,  and  more 
often  a  larger,  amount  of  alkaloids  or  glucosides  than  the  same  species 
of  the  wild  plant,  and  there  should  be  no  reason  why  the  cultivation 
of  medicinal  plants  should  not  make  more  rapid  strides  in  this  country. 
In  reference  to  digitalis — he  states  that  the  first-year  plants  yield 
a  higher  percentage  of  glucosides  than  is  required  by  the  Pharmaco- 
poeia, and  if  the  first-year  plants  would  be  admitted  to  the  Phar- 
macopoeia it  would  pay  to  cultivate  the  drug,  as  the  yield  for  the 
first  year  is  about  three  times  that  of  the  second  year. 
In  reporting  on  the  crop  for  the  year  1914,  this  company  states: 
"  With  the  kind  of  soil  that  we  have  available,  which  is  very  rich, 
and  the  kind  of  fertilizer,  of  which  we  have  plenty,  and  the  kind  of 
care  that  we  were  able  to  give  the  plants,  the  crop  was  a  successful 
one. 
"  Some  of  our  crop  was  from  field-grown  seeds,  and  the  balance 
from  hot-house  plants.  Either  method  can  be  made  successful,  but 
the  field-grown  seeds  must  be  planted  at  a  time  when  the  moisture 
in  the  soil  is  sufficient,  and  we  should  say,  ought  to  be  quite  a  little 
more  than  that  required  by  farm  crops. 
"  The  cost  per  acre  for  planting,  weeding,  cultivating  and  finally 
harvesting,  drying,  stripping  the  leaves,  etc.,  makes  the  crop  very 
much  more  expensive  than  any  other  farm  crop  that  we  know  of, 
but  our  figures  show  that  the  crop  as  we  raised  it  gave  a  fair  margin 
of  profit.  Last  year  we  did  not  raise  any  other  drug  but  cannabis ; 
this  year  we  expect  to  extend  the  line  to  at  least  digitalis  and  bella- 
donna. 
