plants, some
part of which may be used for medicinal purposes. We condense from
Farmers' Bulletin No. 188, United States Department of Agriculture:

Certain well-known weeds are sources of crude drugs at present
obtained wholly or in part from abroad. Roots, leaves, and flowers
of several of the species most detrimental in the United States are
gathered, cured, and used in Europe, and supply much of the demands
of foreign lands. Some of these plants are in many states subject to
anti-weed laws, and farmers are required to take measures toward
their extermination.

The prices paid for crude drugs from these sources save in war time
are not great and would rarely tempt any one to this work as a
business. Yet if in ridding the farm of weeds and thus raising the
value of the land the farmer can at the same time make these pests
the source of a small income instead of a dead loss, something is
gained.

One rather alluring fact contained in an article by Dr. True, is
that a shortage has become keenly felt in "Golden Seal," which the
early American settlers learned from the Indians to use as a
curative for sore and inflamed eyes, as well as for sore mouth. The
plant grows in patches in high open woods, and was formerly found in
great abundance in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia, but
is now so rare that its price has risen from thirty-five cents
wholesale in 1898 to over seventy-five cents a pound. Persons in
different parts of the country have undertaken the production of
Golden Seal on a commercial scale. More than six hundred dollars'
worth can be grown on an acre: so a crop this year would be a
fortune. The methods of raising it can be ascertained upon
application to the Department of Agriculture.

Ginseng is one of the drug crops which paid handsome returns a few
years ago, perhaps because it takes from five to seven years to grow
from seeds; but so many went into that line that few men to-day make
anything at it. Furthermore, the Chinese, who use a large part of
it, will buy only the wild roots--and they know the difference.
Those who control the trade have burned quantities in the effort to
keep up the price.

There are some drug plants which might be raised with success by
those who would specialize in one plant, but the lesson we learn
from ginseng should act as a warning.

Raising drugs is one of those things that seems to be more
profitable to teach others to do than to do yourself. A well known