The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-03-11
A GARDEN PATCH
or DEADLY PLANTS
Department Of Agriculture Has
a Two Acre Poison Farm
Near Washington.
WILL BENEFIT THE FARMER
Americas Yearly Poison Bill Is Eight
Million Dollars and the Depart
ment Hopes to Keep This
Money at Home.

Kansas City Star: The United State>
has started In to grow potsons. It has
BET up a hasheesh factory on q small
scale, and Is about to try the CONNER
bal production and manufacture of
bpium. Deadly nightshade, m%onkshood,
benbane, foXglove, Unison weed and
NORWOOD are among the plants which
are being cultivated in an experimental
garden patch abou two acres in extent
on the Potomac flats, close by the city
of Washington.
The plants selected for culture in. this
government garden are those that yield
the deadliest of known poisons, which
are at the same time the most powerful
Rnd valuable drugs employed bw med
lcal science. Americans import some
thing like $4,000, 900 yearly of such drugs
Including raw materials from which
they are extracted-and it Is believed
that most of this money might be saved
by producing the toxic weeds for them
selves.
Opium is one of the most complex Of
vegetable substances, containing more
n twenty distinct active principles,
OF which the best known and most val
liable Is morphine. The government ex-
perts intend to extract morphine from
the Texas opium eXperimentaily.
A Famous Drug.
The most striking feature of the
poison garden garden on the Potomac
flats is a patch Of Indian hemp, from
which the famous drug called .'hash-
eesh' is obtained. Its delicate ak
Of waving green tower to a height Of
ten feet, with many branches, and at
the top are delicate tassels Of tiny
lowers. 1T Is from the seed vessels
that is derived the substance which
yields the toxic agent so celebrated in
history and The substance is
bright green in color, and, when sWal-
owed, produces the most extraordinary
visions and hallucinations. Many per-
sons have read of that remarkable Sc
cret society in the orient organized for
whose members called themselves
~Hashhasbin, whence our word "as-
s~assir." and stimulated themselves for
their deeds Of atrccity by doses of this
drug.
The government work with drug
plants is conducted by T.. V. Colville,
the botanist in chief, and the garden
described is laid out in plats of bella
donna, digitalis, %aconite, arnica, veler-
Ian, ~henbane, stramonium, Seneca,
snakeroot, golden seal and other spe-
cles: B~elladonna is the deadly night
shade, digitalis is toxglove, s%tramonium
is Unison weed, and aconite is monks
hood. Golden seal is a wild plant ma
tive to American forests, and is rap
ANAS oA'S1 PpSo iliS VII / dCCOuIll
especially in view Of a growing foreign
demand for it, no time should be lost in
bringing it under cultivation.
The department of agriculture is
growing under glass cinchona trees,
from he bark of which quinine is OBJ
tanned. !"
Will Issue Bulletin.
1t is proposed to separate from each
kind of drug its active principle in
considerable quantities, in order to
make the investigation as complete as
possible. h curing of the fresh ma
terial has to be very carefully DONE,
else the drugs will not be first class. All
Of the knowledge obtained will even
tually be put into the shape Of a bull
let1n, which will be distributed among
farmers for their instruction in q
branch of gardening that, in the opin-
ion Of the department of agriculture,
may yield large profits.