Part 13 (1/2)
Too many misleading and conflicting articles have been published on the subject of Ginseng culture in Korea, a true statement of the facts may be of interest. We all know the Korean Ginseng always commands a high price in China and I believe there must be a very good reason for it. Either the Korean method of cultivation, curing or marketing was superior to the American method or centuries of experience in its cultivation had taught him a lesson and a secret we had yet to learn. After considerable correspondence with parties in Korea which gave me very little information and to set my mind at rest on these questions, I went to Korea in 1903 for the sole purpose of obtaining all the information possible on Ginseng culture according to Korean methods and also if possible to secure enough nursery stock to plant a Ginseng garden in America with the best Korean stock.
Strange to say, even after I reached the city of Seoul, the capital of Korea, I could not obtain any more reliable information on Ginseng than I already knew before I left America. They told me where the great Ginseng district was located, that 40,000 cattys were packed each year for export, etc., but as to the soil, planting, cultivation, irrigation, shading, curing, packing, etc., they knew nothing that was reliable.
All the American people use sugar in one form or another, but how many could tell a person seeking for reliable information concerning the planting of the cane or sugar beet, of the character of the soil necessary, of its cultivation and irrigation, the process of refining, packing and marketing, etc. Comparatively few, indeed, and so it is with the Koreans on the cultivation of Ginseng. They all use it, but, like the Chinese, not one in several thousand ever saw a Ginseng plant growing. After considerable delay I secured a competent interpreter, a cook, and food supplies, and started from Seoul for the great Ginseng district, traveling part of the way by rail, then by sampan, and finally reached my destination on Korean ponies.
Arriving at the Ginseng center, I lived among the Ginseng growers from the time the seed crop ripened until nearly all the five-year-old roots, or older ones, were dug up and delivered to the government at their drying grounds, which is about four acres in extent. This compound is enclosed on three sides by buildings from 100 to 150 feet in length and a uniform width of twelve feet and the rest of the compound with a high stone wall with a gate, which is closely guarded by soldiers armed with guns. Near the center of this compound is a well where the roots are washed as soon as they are received. There is no entrance from the outside to any of these buildings. Every one must pa.s.s the guards at the gate, for the buildings, together with the wall, make a complete enclosure.
The Ginseng gardens are scattered over considerable territory, most of which is surrounded by a high stone wall about twenty or twenty-five miles in circ.u.mference, similar to the great wall of China, and which many years ago was the site of one of the ancient capitals of Korea.
Part of the growers make a specialty of raising one-year-old plants, to supply those who have sufficient means to wait four years more for the roots to mature. Generally, speaking, the grower that produces the commercial root raises but little if any one-year roots.
All Ginseng gardens are registered as required by law, stating how many kan (a kan of Ginseng is the width of the bed, about 30 inches and 5 1/2 feet long) are under cultivation, so the High Government Official, specially appointed for the Ginseng district, always knows how many roots should be available at harvest time and every grower must sell his entire crop that is five years old or over to the government and his responsibility does not cease until he has delivered his crop at the government drying grounds.
His roots are then carefully selected and all that do not come up to a required size are rejected and delivered back to the grower and these he can either dry for his own use or he can transplant them and perhaps next year they will come up to the required standard. The Koreans pay great attention to the selection of their Ginseng seed.
No plant is allowed to bear seed that is less than four years old and very little seed is used from four-year plants. Nearly all the seed comes from five-year-old plants and a little from six-year-old. Only the best and strongest appearing plants are allowed to bear seed, and even these very sparingly, as part of the seed head is picked off while in the blossom and from which they make a highly prized tea.
The seed stem of all other plants are pinched off, forcing all the strength, as well as medicinal properties, into the root.
Many of the best growers never allow their plants to bear seed, and only the required amount of seed is raised each year to supply the demand. After the seed is gathered, it is graded by pa.s.sing it thru a screen of a certain size. This grader is made like an old-fas.h.i.+oned flour sieve, only the bottom is made of a heavy oil paper with round holes cut in it, and all seed that will pa.s.s thru these holes are destroyed, so only the largest and best seed are kept for planting.
The soil which they use for their Ginseng garden is a very poor disintegrate granite, to which has been added leaf mould mostly from the chestnut oak, in the proportion of three-eighths leaf mould to five-eighths granite. The leaves are gathered in the spring and summer, dried in the sun, pulverized and sprinkled with water to help decomposition. This is the only fertilizer used. The beds are raised about eight inches above the level of the ground and are carefully edged with slabs of slate. What is called a holing board is used to mark the places for the seed. It is made of a board as long as the beds are wide (about thirty inches) and has three rows of pegs 1/2-inch long and 1 1/2 inches apart each way.
A seed is planted in each hole and covered by pressing the soil down with the hands. About 1/4-inch of prepared soil is added to the bed and smoothed over. No other mulch is used. The roots are transplanted each year, setting them a little farther apart each time, until at the third transplanting, or at four years old, they are 6x6 inches apart, and at each transplanting the amount of leaf mould used in the prepared soil is reduced. (Note the difference between this and the American method of heavy fertilizing). Only germinated seed is planted and the time for planting is regulated by the Korean Calendar and not by the weather and if at that time it is at all cold, the beds are immediately covered with one or two thickness of rice straw thatch and as soon as the weather is suitable this thatch is removed and the shade erected. Each bed is shaded separately by setting a row of small posts in the ground 4 feet high and 5 1/2 feet or 1 kan apart, on the north side of each bed and on the south side a similar row, only about 1 foot high. Bamboo poles are securely lashed to these posts and they in turn support the cross pieces on which rests the roof covering, made of reeds woven together with a very small straw rope. At the time of the summer solstice, the rainy season comes on, so a thick covering of thatch is spread over the reed covering, which sheds the rain into the walks, while the back and front are enclosed with rush blinds, that on the north side being raised or lowered according to the temperature. If it is a very hot day the blinds are lowered from about 10 A. M. to 4 P. M., leaving the beds in almost darkness.
The beds are all protected from the rain and are irrigated by sprinkling them when needed. At the close of the growing season, after the roots have gone dormant, all that are not dug up are covered with a layer of soil 7 or 8 inches thick. All the shade is pulled down except the posts and spread over the soil and the garden is left thus for the winter, and the grower selects another site to which he can move his plants in the spring, and each year new soil is prepared. From the time the roots are two years old there is another added care. They are now worth stealing, consequently the garden has to be watched day and night. A watch tower about 16 feet high is erected and the hands take turn about, occupying it as a sentry.
Another man constantly patrols the garden during the night.
The Koreans are the largest consumers of Ginseng in the world, in proportion to their population, and they have carefully cultivated it for centuries with the one particular object in view, ”its medicinal properties.” For quality always, rather than quant.i.ty. They sacrifice everything else for a powerful medicinal root, and they surely grow it. I have seen some remarkable results from its use during my stay in Korea. Say what we may about it, but it plays a very important part in the life of both the Korean and the Chinese people. Do you wonder now that the Korean Ginseng always commands a high price? If the American growers had followed closer along the lines of the Korean growers and aimed for a high grade of medicinal root, the market for American Ginseng would not be where it is today. That is, the cultivated Ginseng. The American growers have it in their own hands to either make a success or failure of Ginseng culture, but one thing is certain, heavy seed bearing, excessive fertilizing and rapid drying will never produce a high standard of Ginseng. The princ.i.p.al market of the world is ours if we only reach out for it with that high standard and maintain it and especially so if we will unite together and market our product thru one central agency controlled by the producers. Mr. Chinaman may sometimes be mistaken as to whether Ginseng is wild or cultivated. He may also be mistaken as to whether it comes from Korea or China (I have seen him make this mistake), but let him once sample a liberal dose of it, and he won't make any mistake as to whether it is good, medium or bad.
The Ginseng Trade.
The following article by Mr. Burnett appeared in the Minneapolis Journal last February and shows what dealers think of the Ginseng industry:
I wish you would give room for what I have to say in regard to an article in your Journal last fall by our ex-Consul, John Goodnow.
Some things he says are correct: That the demand is based entirely on superst.i.tion; that the root has life-giving qualities; and that those having the nearest resemblance to human beings are most valuable.
That is quite true. I have seen the Chinese exporters' eyes dance when they saw such roots in a lot.
Now for the errors in what he said. He says the trade is in the hands of a syndicate and they only handle Korean Ginseng. Possibly this syndicate tells the Chinese retail merchants that to keep them from boycotting our American Ginseng. If so, why is it that the wild root this fall has been at ready sale at $6.75 to $7.10 per pound? We, who buy it, do not hold it and if we did not find a ready sale for it we would soon cease to buy it.
There has been marketed in Minneapolis probably $50,000 worth this year and in the United States a million dollars' worth. So you see his error: for, either directly or indirectly, it gets to China at good prices.
Chinese Superst.i.tions.
Now in regard to the cultivated root, to show your readers how the value is based on superst.i.tion, we will cite one instance in our experience. We sent our clerk to a laundry where there were a half dozen ”Celestials” to sell some nice cultivated root. Some roots were manlike in shape. They tasted it, were delighted with it and bought it readily and told him to bring them all he could get, as what they did not need for their own use they would s.h.i.+p to their exporter in San Francisco.
Our man told them he would be around in one week. We sent him again in just a week. He said on his return they ”looked daggers” at him and said, ”We no wantee your cultivated root.” This convinced us they had s.h.i.+pped it to the agents of the syndicate at 'Frisco and received their returns. Now, does this not show that the demand is all based on superst.i.tion? It was very good until they were informed that it was cultivated.
Now your readers may say, how can they distinguish between the cultivated and the wild? I will tell you; the cultivated is usually much firmer and twice as heavy as the wild and generally much cleaner. Then most of the cultivated has been raised from small, wild roots dug from the forests and in transplanting they have not taken pains to place the tap root straight in the earth. This causes it to be clumpy--that is, not straight like most wild roots. This, with its solidity and cleanliness makes it easy to tell from the wild roots.