The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-01-18
GINSENG.
A WORTHLESS ROOT THAT Is
ACnINESE CURE. ALI.
More Than 100000 Pounds Gath
cred Annually in America For
Export-Its High Price
Where 1t Is found.


commerce is ginseng. If you speak to al
ordinary man about ginseng, he will asl
you what you mean. If you tell hin
ginseng is an article of commerce II
which traffic of about million dollar
q year is done by Americans, he will star
at you. If you tell him that it has beer
In certain places of the world worth it
weight IN gold, he will probably star
harder. If in addition to this you tel
him that it is vast humbug, and that i
Is 8 very ordinary root of an American
shrub, almost without particle of an.
& but imaginary value, he will concede tina
it is a strange article for traffic. Finally
when he learns that the populacc of
vast nation, high aud low, consider it 1
cure-all, and that it enters into ever,
medicine for every ailment in that nation
Nbe will only understand the matter whel
learns that it is the eccentric Chinese
whom this in reality unimportant roo
Faluable.
R- China, i 9 maa mas a headache
eeng is the pres .ript:on. If his trou
Bile is toothache, ginseng is the same
z remedy again. For all ills, from de-
preston of spirits to sore toe, ginseng
Is the universal remedy.
:, Physicians and authorities of the civil
ICED world give the assurance that in
medicinal properties the root Is almost
6nert-at the most, contains to very
mild extent tonic properties. None but
The singular and relocating Celestial can
feel any effects from the use of it; but
hmong the Cinnamon of this country
there is almost no consumption. The
root is bought here by resident Cinnamon
for home export. They do not use it
4 themselves. however, and inquiry from
these Celestial wor'hics has seldom
brought out any satisfactory statements
as to what ginseng is good for.
The belief among the home Chinese is
mostly superstition. 1t is sort OF
fetch, its powers are supposed to be oc-
cult, of the nature of magic.
In China the belief is still implicit, and
.besides the vast amount grown in that
country, it receives all that America can
supply, which is on the average 425, 600
pounds year.
The American wholesale price is now
81. .25 pound. The article is sent mostly
In crude state, but carefully cleaned.
A process of heat clarifies it to hard
substance, with a pithy-likc, petrifed
jelly 1t is used there as table delicacy
by the rich.
Ginseng in China is Government
monopoly, and Prof. Lockhart, of Lon
don, is the authority for the statement
that it is sold to privileged dea ers by
the Imperial Government of China, at its
! weight in gold. This is denied by some
American dealers. But the value is still
high. The root is very light and the
$s.25 pound, its wholesale price here,
is enormous.
There are certain single roots, espe-
cially of certain shapes, very rare,
which bring from $a5 to $4OO, and are
only possessed by the wealthy class
mandarins and others.
And yet the wholesale price here is
slowly but always steadily rising, and the
ridiculous fact is before us that the price
of this futile drug, used by nobody in
this country, will in time become greater
than that of opium itself, as the gradual
but sure process of its determination in
America continues. The amount is lin
tied by the fact that it can not be culti-
vated-only the wild kind is of CONNER
cial use, and this is becoming scarcer
every year.
What, then, is ginseng9 Ginseng is
the root of shrub which has fourished
for ages in China. 1t is called in botany,
aralia quinquefolium, quinquefolium
meaning tive-leaved, and its ive-leaved
twigs branch off, to the number of three,
from smooth, round stem about foot
high.
It happened that in 1909 priest, one
Father F. Fastoux, was diligently en-
ployed in making a map of Tartary.
During this labor he saw the plant grow
ing in this mystic land, four leagues
away from the kingdom Of Corea, in the
spot where Tartar village lay.
The Tartars were full of the praise of
the fabulous ginseng and its wonderful
powers, Father Fastoux becoming an
enthusiast also. He had missionary
friends on the other side of the world, in
Canada. To these the priest sent some
of the root and an eXtolment OF its prop
critics as a cure for all human ills. Back
in due time came the reply that the same
root was well known to the Canada
priests and in full use by the Indians.
The American ginseng perhaps differs
slightly from the Chinese, for there are
five or six varieties of the root, but it
possesses all the external attributes OF
the celestial variety. The ginseng was
sent at that time 10 Europe, and was then
first introduced to the civilized world
Even at that date, in the last century
European savans rudcly shattered the illu
sion as to the root, and pronounced il
almost inert as drug.
1t grows about the wild lands auc
farms of the Northwest and Northeast
As cultivation ruins its flavor, it canno
be made q regular industry, either il
growth or collection. In 1860 its price
was about 25 cents per pound. In 1876
it had risen to GO cents pound. It
export now is 375, 900 pounds. The big
ge>t yield of all was in 1861, when tn
export almost doubled; 1860 had seen
ginseng collecting craze like a gold fever
In the lake States, where the rcople lcf
their homes, camped for weeks in tn
hills, raised the export of ginseng t.
S33, 900 pounds, the highest export eve
made, and rooted out the plant so tha
it has been scarce ever since. At prcseH
the best regions for it are New York
Pennsylvania and Ohio, the prime articl
coming from New York. the poores
from Minnesota, North and South Care
lima. In short, all parts Of the Cnitet
States where the sugar maple grows wer
originally its habitat.
The root, the only valuable part of tn