The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1899-09-14
Ginseng.

1t Grows in the Upland Woods of Franklin
County.
There grows in the rich, moist soil of
the upland woods in Franklin county a !
plant whose root is said to have been |
worth its weight in gold. Though hardly |
so valuable at the present time, it COM
mands price that gives lucrative employ
ment to those engaged in gathering and |
drying the root during the late SUNNI er
and early autumn months. The plant to
which we refer is known as ginseng, or to
scientists as Panax quinquefolium. Fur
dealers inform the writer that the price
lists OF raw fur always quote 'ginsengi
root, for which local buyer is now offer
ing s.. 10 per pound for the best quality.
Drying shriDks the roots about two
thirds, and in the most favorable localities
an experienced ginseng digger will gather
from three to eight pounds of the green
root in day. Two young men living not
more than thousand miles from the
shire town of Franklin county are said to
have already gathered and dried more
than SO. 90 dollars worth of the weed this |
season, and only few days since parties
at West Mills in the town of Industry |
q n
When this country was first settled the |
plant grew in profusion and many a poor
boy found profitable employment in gath
ering the root at S1C0 a pound.
The root has a sweetish, aromatic and
slightly bitter taste, and when our
country was new it enjoyed considerable
celebrity in domestic medicine as a RENE
dy for certain forms of dyspepsia. Thera
POLITICALLY it is not potent agent and the
great demand for the root for expectation
to China and the attendant high price rem
ders home consumption extremely small.
The inhabitants of the "Flowery King
DOM consider it possessed of almost
supernatural virtues and sovereign RENE
dy for all the ills to which the human
flesh is heir To this fact alone is to be
attributed the present active demand and
corresponding high price. So extremely
dear is the crude drug that but few OF
our largest manufacturing chemists have
the liuid extract on their lists. When
found it is quoted at from IS. so to $50
per pint, representing sixteen avoirdupos
ounces of the crude we'll dried root. Some
persons unacquainted with the plant con-
fuse it with gentian (gelti0n tateG) well
known medicinal agent.
Ginseng is found growing in moist, rich
upland soil of Franklin county and loves
a cool, shady retreat The flowers appear
in July. Its stem is round, smooth, green
or reddish, one foot high, divided at its
summit into three petioles, each support
ing a common leaf with from three to seven
leaflets; leaflets obyate, serrate, acute,
smooth on both sides, hirsuite on vines
above. dark green; flowers greenish white
in a terminal subglobula umbel, on a long
round slender pedphcle which rises
from the center Of the petioles; fruit a
reniform, scarlet, two-celed, two seeded
berry, half an inch thick, ttesAy, annuate,
with a round head above and several
branches below, brownish yellow, inter
nally white, fructure short, meay; bark
thick with many brown resin cells sepa-
rated from the yellowish woody substance
by a brown cambium line. Tie stalk
and arrangement of the leaves strk-
ingly resemble the American saIsapa-
rilla smilaX sarsaparilla. Though H.
digenous to the soil of Franklin county
unreasonable digging by the early set
tiers soon exhausted the supply and it is
only very recently that the industry has
been revived. Ginseng is Of SLOW growth
even under the most favorable circum-
stances and does not reach a commercial
size until the plant is four years Old. 1t
seldom produces seed before that age, and
even then is not prolific seeder, a thrifty
plant producing no more than fifty seeds,
In a state Of nature, its only means Of
propagation is by these seeds which ripen
in September. If, therefore, the plant be
| dug prior to the ripening of the seed the
only means of perpetuating itself is taken
| away. Yet this is the very thing that
| happens and it accounts for the rapid dis
appearance of the plant when the diggers
| have once begun their work.
Even Legislative enactments are power
| less to stay this deplorahe waste, as has
| been exempliied in more than one State
| The seed maturing in 1899 will not germi-
/ nate until the spring Of 1901, and if, dur
ing that time it becomes dried it will not
terminate at all. Its cultivation has been
| attempted, and in some instances with fair
| y satisfactory results, but this requires
| skill, patience and an intimate knowledge
Of the habits of the plant VIM. G..
Hatch, NJ. D., in Phillips Photograph.