The Savannah morning news., 1901-11-09
TO RAISE GINSENG FOR CHINA.
Farmers in Western New York to
Add to Exports of the Priced Root.

Farmers in Western New York to
Add to Exports of the Priced Root.
From the Rochester Democrat.
The latest enterprise to be establish
ed in Western New York and one of
the most novel and least known about
is that Of growing ginseng roots for
| the Chinese market. w. A. Bates of
| Cuba, Allegany county, is spending S.
500 on ginseng farm that will embrace
| four acres. He has purchased 10000
growing plants and 10000 terminated
seed, and is buying all the wild roots
offered. This is the first farm of the
kind to be established in Western
New York, and Mr.. Bates contract
| calls for the services of an expert gin
seng gardener for two years.
Few people have any idea of the ex-
tent of the wild ginseng industry. This
year the United States will export to
China about $4,000 worth of dried
ginseng roots. Last year the war ruin
ed the market and prices fell. but this
year choice roots bring as high as 81
pound in the cities where the ginseng
exporters are located. The expectation
OF the roots is controlled by trust
composed OF Chinese exporters who
nave monopoly of the business. In
emma choice ginseng roots readily sell
LOT $40 a pound, and single roots of GER
tam shapes have brought as much as
$500 in gold.
The value of the root is due to
chinese superstition that the root will
cure all mental and physical ills mo
long life; in fact, that it is a specific.
Nearly every Chinese prescription con-
tains ginseng, and volumes have been
written about its marvellous virtues.
Inc faith of the Chinese in the efficien-
cy or the root has not wavered in CEN
turles, and it is found on sale at all
the botanic stores in the Flowery King
Gem Inc most valued ginseng from the
Cnlnese point of view comes from I'll
forests of Manchuria, but Manch,Iian
Wlid ginseng is reserved for royalty
ana sells for enormous prices. Ginseng
mas peen cultivated in Korea for the
Chlnese market for hundreds of wears.
put II can only be grown under roval
Incense, and the profits of the ginseng
gardens are considered as the Kings
private spending money, amounting to
ABOUT $5O0,O0O year. Armed guards
patroi the ginseng gardens in Korea
to keep thieves from robbing the beds
or the valuable roots.
Glnseng has been exported from
america to China for more than a
century and a half. For fifty wears
the number of pounds exported each
year mas been growing less and the
price increasing. The wild root is be-
ing gradually exterminated, and were
~ not Tor the interest that is being
taken in ginseng growing and the
promise of success that the experinoants
already made hold out, it would only he
matter of a few years when the ex-
portatlon OF wild ginseng roots from
tnls country would cease because of
the extinction of the plant.
Inc ginseng plant is a peculiar one
Inc seeds require eighteen months TO
terminate and the roots are not large
enough to market until at least six
years old, often eight Unless the
| seeds are kept moist they will NOT
terminate at all. 1t is only during
the past eleven years that ginseng has
Deen successfully cultivated in the
united States. and hundreds of expert
lheHts were made that We're unsuccess
tul. The government experiment sta
ions have spent much time and money
ana nave been of great help to ginseng
sIowers, Tor they have conducted ex-
perlments on an elaborate scale. not
counting the cost and working under
the most favorable conditions.
| Wllo ginseng is a habitat of every
county IN Western New York and of
nearly every county in the state. The
plant is of slow growth and long lived.
greatly resembling in appearance the
wild sarsaparilla plant with which
every one is familiar. The plant
comes up in the spring as soon as the
frost is out of the ground. The aver
age hight of the mature plant is ten
inches, and the average root weighs
say, an ounce. Stalks three feet high
and roots weighing twenty-five ounces
have been found, but they are very
scarce nowadays. A popularity about
ginseng is the shape of the roots. Some
OF them are forked and resemble in
form the human body with spurs for
arms and legs. Such roots are espe-
| cially priced by the Chinese and bring
big prices.
The root, the only portion of the gin
seng plant valuable for export, resem-
oies in color the garden parsnip. 1t
| has pleasant, aromatic taste. The
| dying stalk leaves a wrinkle on the
| top of the root every fall and so the
| age of the root is as easily told as the
age of tree. Wild roots have been
| dug in the country that were fifty
years old. Nearly every ginsing digger
nibbles at wild roots and likes the taste
and then turns around and smiles at
the Chinaman who gives up big money
| for the root. Many diggers claim that
| gfnsing is very beneficial in stomach
eAOuDiSS' OltSto say lildI IL mas no
| virtue at all.
Ginsing diggers invade the woods as
soon as the plant is in blossom in the
spring, and hunt them until the frost
| comes late in the fall. In June the
plant bears a white. blossom. In July
green berries that greatly resemble
common squaw berries follow the bios
som. In August the berries turn scar
let. The reason why wild ginseng has
| been so nearly exterminated is because
the diggers have not used good judg-
ment. They have dug tn eroots too
early in the year. Plants dug up when
in blossom or when the berries are
green are exterminated. When dug
when the berries are ripe, if the ber-
ries are poked into the hole and COW
erd, stand a good chance. of reproduce
ing another crop of wild plants. Plants
bear from ten to one hundred seeds,
each berry containing two.
So far the ginseng farmers have
raised few roots. for export; and the
reason is plain. AS fast as they have
matured plants they have sold the seed
and Seeding plants to others just
starting in the business The germi-