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The  Cultivation  of  Saffron. 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
May,  1905. 
made  the  evening  work  of  mother,  and  other  helpers,  to  separate 
the  stigmas.  The  gathering  of  the  flower  covers  eight  or  ten  days, 
sometimes  longer,  depending  largely  upon  weather  conditions;  much 
more  tedious  is  the  caring  for  the  trifid  stigma;  there  is  an  art  in  right- 
ly plucking  and  separating  it  from  the  yellow  style;  some  women  are 
quite  expert  in  this  branch,  as  was  demonstrated  to  me  on  my  visit, 
and  right  here  is  where  our  commercial  friends  in  the  saffron  coun- 
tries abroad  are  not  as  careful  as  they  might  be.  Cheap,  ignorant 
labor  is  largely  responsible  for  the  quality  of  the  saffron  sold  in  the 
American  market.  With  care  saffron  can  be  kept  clean  and  clear 
of  accidental,  to  say  nothing  of  intentional,  adulteration.  It  is  very 
easy  to  adulterate  saffron  at  least  25  per  cent,  before  the  flower  is 
dropped  in  the  operation  of  plucking  the  stigma,  as  any  one  familiar 
with  the  flower  can  appreciate.  You  have  seen  the  dried  corolla 
and  other  parts  of  the  flower  mixed  in  saffron.  I  have  a  specimen 
of  commercial  saffron  which  you  will  all  pass  as  a  good  quality.  It  is 
in  my  judgment  as  good  as  usually  found  in  the  market.  I  also 
present  for  your  inspection  a  portion  of  a  specially  selected  article, 
bought  several  years  ago,  and  saved  to  prove  that  pure  unadulterated 
saffron  may  be  produced. 
It  will  be  interesting  for  some  of  the  readers  to  know  what  are 
the  uses  made  of  saffron  by  the  housekeeper  in  our  Pennsylvania 
German  counties,  and  especially  Lebanon,  Lancaster  and  Berks  and 
possibly  sections  of  other  counties.  They  have  the  ancient  custom 
of  employing  the  article  in  culinary  dishes.  A  noodle  soup,  chicken 
and  other  stews  are  not  considered  up  to  standard  if  not  flavored 
and  colored  with  saffron ;  and  when  measles  and  kindred  exan- 
thematous  diseases  visit  the  household,  saffron  tea  is  the  first  remedy 
to  promote  eruption,  and  very  frequently  a  handy  remedy  is  found 
in  its  use  as  an  emmenagogue.  When  the  home  demand  is  cared 
for  and  neighbors  accommodated,  the  surplus  may  be  sold  to  the 
druggist  or  country  merchant. 
WOULD  THE  CULTURE  OF  SAFFRON  PAY? 
The  garden  patch  I  saw  and  have  associated  with  the  following 
figures,  will  also  be  of  interest:  Its  area  was  12  x  14  feet,  planted 
as  indicated,  and  produced  1,500  to  2,000  flowers  per  season;  this 
particular  patch  had  the  rows  1 5  inches  apart.  The  estimate  of 
flowers  produced  varied  according  to  weather  conditions,  and  was 
