The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-05-14

| receives requests for Information
/ about this fascinating crop.
| Korea is recognized as the natural
! habitat of the ginseng plant, and Unit
! ed States Minister Allen has thrown
/ up his hands In despair over the grow
/ ing volume of his correspondence on
/ this subject. He has received so many
! letters from would-be ginseng farmers
| in the United states that he has in
formed the State Depa rtment that he
! cannot undertake TO answer any more
Of the communications.
Every mail the minister says, brings
| to him requests for ginseng seeds and
plants and information. Not realizing
| that the Agricultural Department long
ago became swamped with similar IN
quiries, Mr. Allen has referred his cor
respondents to that department In
letter to the State Department, in
which Minister Allen tells of his trou-
bles from the ginseng craze, he says:
with great difficulty living roots
have been shipped TO America and a
reliable supply must now be available.
At least one enterprising American (of
San Francisco has spent some months
at the ginseng farms in Korea, study
ing the culture and conditions and
taking away with him large shipment
of living plants so that dealers in
the United States must now have
plentiful supply of reliable plants and
fresh seeds
The ginseng farms are some sixty
miles distant from Seoul, and there is
no person there TO whom one may
apply for seeds or plants. The Amer
lean missionaries residing near the
farms have wisely decided not to at
tempt to export the seeds and plants,
as such a course would ultimately
cause trouble for them with the ma
tives.
IF all the ginseng plants in Amer
lea succeeded the product will be of
little value. The only market for the
roots is in China. and it is overstocked,
while the Korean product-which seems
to be of especial value, due to con-
ditions of soil and climates increas-
ing so greatly that the purchasers of
the last crop were obliged to destroy
a large quantity in order TO keep the
supply more nearly within the de-
mand T."
Both Minister Allen and Secretary
of Agriculture Wilson are of the opin-
ion that ginseng is greater delusion
than was Col. Sellers's famous Oriental
eye liniment. 1t may seem as if there
were millions in it for the ginseng farm
ers of the United States; but Mr.. Will
son says: Let ginseng alone"
1t was the Department of Agricul-
ture that began the trouble 1t is
sued a pamphlet of thrty-two pages
on the subject of ginseng as long ago
as 1885. It was long time before
the authors of this really innocent pub
LEGATION fully realized the trouble they
had made for themselves.
Farmers all over the country began
to make inquiries about ginseng Gull
ture, and the inquiries increased in
number until the officials were sorry
they had ever heard of ginseng much
-
deemed necessary to reprint the
pamphlet and to publish with ii Wig
orous note of warning. but the mis-
chief had been done, and the depart
ment was taxed more than ever with
requests for information and applica-
tions for plants and seeds.
This spring the ginseng craze seems
to be on the increase, and instances
are known at the department of per-
sons who have actually begun the
culture of the much advertised plant
Fraud in connection with this infant
industry has already appeared some
firms having advertised ginseng seeds
for sale, which when planted produced
common turni2s.
The Chinese have been regarded as
legitimate prey by certain INSCRIPTIONS
exporters who have loaded the ginseng
root with nails, screws, lead and other
heavy substances in order to make the
sample weigh up well. These sub
stances have been inserted when the
root was soft. Upon drying there was
no trace left of adulteration.
The Chinese take ginseng in three
ways; as a confection, an infusion and
pills. Its medicinal value is thought
10 be diminished by a steaming pro-
cess to which it is frequently subject
ed for the purpose of improving its
color.
1t appears to receive the character
of confection by sleeping in honey
or by the use of sugar 1t seems prob
able that what medicinal virtues the
root possesses were discovered at a
time when the attributes of more pow
erful drugs of similar qualities were
unknown, and that the conservatism
of the Chinese, coupled with their be
lief in the occult, has maintained an
exaggerated estimate of it's efficacy.
The Western world, profiting by ex-
pertinent and research in the province
of medicine, has dropped the use OF
ginseng, except as a demulcent for
which purpose many other substances
are more popular.