Part 2 (1/2)

Tansy (Trailing Arbutus. See Gravel Plant)--The Herb.

Veratrum Viride (Green h.e.l.lebore. American h.e.l.lebore)--The Root.

Vervain (Blue Vervain)--The Herb.

Virginia Stone Crop (Dutch Stone Crop) Wafer Ash (Hop Tree. Swamp Dogwood. Stinking Ash. Scrubby Trefoil.

Ague Bark)--The Bark of Root.

Water Avens (Throat Root. Cure All. Evan's Root. Indian Chocolate.

Chocolate Root. Bennett Root)--The Root.

Water Eryngo (b.u.t.ton Snake Root. Corn Snake Root. Rattle Snake's Weed)--The Root.

Water Hemlock (Spotted Parsley. Spotted Hemlock. Poison Parsley.

Poison Hemlock. Poison Snake Weed. Beaver Poison)--The Herb.

Watermelon--The Seed.

Water Pepper (Smart Weed. Arsmart)--The Herb.

Water Ash--The Bark of Tree.

White Oak (Tanners Bark)--The Bark of Tree, Rossed.

White Ash--The Bark of Tree.

White Poplar (Trembling Poplar. Aspen. Quaking Asp)--The Bark of Tree.

Wild Lettuce (Wild Opium Lettuce. Snake Weed. Trumpet Weed)--The Leaves.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Indian Turnip (Wild).]

Wild Turnip (Indian Turnip. Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Pepper Turnip.

Swamp Turnip)--The Root, sliced.

Wintergreen (Checkerberry. Partridge Berry. Teaberry.

Deerberry)--The Leaves.

Witch Hazel (Striped Alder. Spotted Alder. Hazelnut)--The Bark. The Leaves.

Yarrow (Milfoil. Thousand Leaf)--The Herb.

Yellow Parilla (Moon Seed. Texas Sarsaparilla)--The Root.

Yerba Santa (Mountain Balm. Gum Plant. Tar Weed)--The Leaves.

CHAPTER III.

CULTIVATION OF WILD PLANTS.

The leading botanical roots in demand by the drug trade are the following, to-wit: Ginseng, Golden Seal, Senega or Seneca Snake Root, Serpentaria or Virginia Snake Root, Wild Ginger or Canada Snake Root, Mandrake or Mayapple, Pink Root, Blood Root, Lady Slipper, Black Root, Poke Root and the Docks. Most of these are found in abundance in their natural habitat, and the prices paid for the crude drugs will not, as yet, tempt many persons to gather the roots, wash, cure, and market them, much less attempt their culture. But Ginseng, Golden Seal, Senega, Serpentaria and Wild Ginger are becoming very scarce, and the prices paid for these roots will induce persons interested in them to study their several natures, manner of growth, natural habitat, methods of propagation, cultivation, etc.

This opens up a new field of industry to persons having the natural apt.i.tude for such work. Of course, the soil and environment must be congenial to the plant grown. A field that would raise an abundance of corn, cotton, or wheat would not raise Ginseng or Golden Seal at all. Yet these plants grown as their natures demand, and by one who ”knows,” will yield a thousand times more value per acre than corn, cotton or wheat. A very small Ginseng garden is worth quite an acreage of wheat. I have not as yet marketed any cultivated Ginseng.

It is too precious and of too much value as a yielder of seeds to dig for the market.

Some years ago I dug and marketed, writes a West Virginia party, the Golden Seal growing in a small plot, ten feet wide by thirty feet long, as a test, to see if the cultivation of this plant would pay. I found that it paid extremely well, although I made this test at a great loss. This bed had been set three years. In setting I used about three times as much ground as was needed, as the plants were set in rows eighteen inches apart and about one foot apart in the rows. The rows should have been one foot apart, and the plants about six inches apart in the rows, or less. I dug the plants in the fall about the time the tops were drying down, washed them clean, dried them carefully in the shade and sold them to a man in the city of Huntington, W Va. He paid me $1.00 per pound and the patch brought me $11.60, or at the rate of $1,684.32 per acre, by actual measure and test.