bristling with shoots, and often bearing wizened fruit, dry and
bitter, or half rotted on the stem.

So, too, the gardens are slighted. Late in the season our average garden
is a miniature jungle, chiefly of weeds that stand high as one's head.
Cabbage and field beans survive and figure mightily in the diet of the
mountaineer. Potatoes generally do well, but few farmers raise enough to
see them through the winter. Generally some tobacco is grown for family
consumption, the strong "twist" being smoked or chewed indifferently.

An interesting crop in our neighborhood was ginseng, of which there were
several patches in cultivation. This curious plant is native throughout
the Appalachians, but has been exterminated in all but the wildest
regions, on account of the high price that its dried root brings. It has
long since passed out of our pharmacopoeia, and is marketed only in
China, though our own people formerly esteemed it as a panacea for all
ills of the flesh. Colonel Byrd, in his "History of the Dividing Line,"
says of it:

"Though Practice wilt soon make a man of tolerable Vigour an able
Footman, yet, as a help to bear Fatigue I us'd to chew a Root of
Ginseng as I Walk't along. This kept up my Spirits, and made me
trip away as nimbly in my half Jack-Boots as younger men cou'd in
their Shoes. This Plant is in high Esteem in China, where it sells
for its Weight in Silver.... Its vertues are, that it gives an
uncommon Warmth and Vigour to the Blood, and frisks the Spirits,
beyond any other Cordial. It chears the Heart, even of a Man that
has a bad Wife, and makes him look down with great Composure on the
crosses of the World. It promotes insensible Perspiration,
dissolves all Phlegmatick and Viscous Humours, that are apt to
obstruct the Narrow channels of the Nerves. It helps the Memory and
would quicken even Helvetian dullness. 'Tis friendly to the Lungs,
much more than Scolding itself. It comforts the Stomach, and
Strengthens the Bowels, preventing all Colicks and Fluxes. In one
Word, it will make a Man live a great while, and very well while he
does live. And what is more, it will even make Old Age amiable, by
rendering it lively, chearful, and good-humour'd."

Alas that only Chinamen and eighteenth-century Cavaliers could absorb
the virtues of this sovereign herb!

A successful ginseng grower of our settlement told me that