Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1904-06-24
THE VALUE OF "WEEDS
A Larue Variety Of Useful Plants which
Are Commonly Reaardnd as use'ess.

wha ere possible, to be burned TO trod'
den under foot. The uses of these things
are not for food, but for medicine, and
there is probably always market for
the perfected products il care has been
taken in collecting and curing them. A
Bulletin of the Department of Agrlcni-
ture, by Alice Henkel, goes very ex-
tensively into the subject OF wv eeds
| Used rs Medicine.
Our old friend, the dandelion, for
example, which everybody is glad TO
have dug out of his lawn, although it
| flourishes where no other bright flower
seems able to subsist, furnishes a root
of value as a drug. 1t is I. large tap
root. sometimes twenty iuches long,
thick and fieshy, dull yellow or
brownish on the outside, but white in
side, practically odorless and bitter to
! the taste. 1t is used in diseases of the
| liver and in dyspepsia. The best time
for digging it is from July to Septem-
Der. 1t should be thoroughly washed
and dried. The drying process de-
creases considerably its size and weight
and also its medical virtues. Hence
it must not be kept too long. During
the last fiscal year 115.522 pounds of
taraxacum or dandeliOn root was i'm
ported into the United States, where
the price ranges from A to 6 cents a
lpound.
| Another lawn pest, the burdOck, both
root and seed, command a market,
Though chiefly the root The seed, for
such small demand as there is for it,
brings to 10 cents pound. 1t is pro-
fusely abundant. one plant bearing as
many as 400, 600 seeds. The root is a
large tap about foot in length ,fieshy
with an outside of blackish or
grayish brown and an inside light in
color and having a spongy center. 1t
must be washed, split lengthwise and
carefully dried, thus losing about four
fifths of it's weight and emitting weak
and unpleasant smell. The annual
limportatlons of lappa or burdOck root,
chiefly from Belgium, average about
SO, geo pounds, and it commands from
3 to s cents pound.
The docks, too, are old familiars to
anyone who has tried to keep grass
plot III order. There are three varie-
| ties, the yellow, the broadleaf and the
yellow rooted water dock. Their roots
are similar; eight to twelve inches long,
ffeshy and somewhat branched; the
outside dark reddish brown with a
rather thick bark, internally yellow
ish; the odor faint and the taste bitter
and stringent. The time to harvest is
late summer or antumn. When care
lfully washed, split lengthwise into
halves or quarters and carefully dried
the rumex or dock root commands from
2 to cents a pound; some 125. .OOO
pounds of it is imported every year.
All the docks figure in the pharmaco-
poeia among the remedies for blond
and skin diseases.
Even couch grass-knOwn to com
lmerce as dog grass or tritlcum-has its
uses in kidney and bladder troubles
La the stores We find it in the form oil
Ismall angular pieces about two-fifths
of an inch long. These are fragments
of the root. stock, after drying. cutting
off the rootlets and running the mail
stems through a chopper. There is
fluid extract derived from this drug
which is medically very eflicacious. A
quarter of million pounds of TIN
dried root-stock is imported every yea
and sells from 8 to cents a pound.
Il Mullen, with its tall, straight, vel
, vety stalk and leaves and rather in
significant yellow flowers, is anothe
plant almost as common as the dais
! on the rough hillside of New York an
New England. The leaves are cure
with care and the flowers are dried an
5 packed in bottles with shoppers tina
J lsurely exclude the air, as any mOlstur
is liable to turn them black. They al
used as sedative. The flowers, pre-
perly prepared, bring anywhere froI
25 to IS cents a pound.
b Tansy, roadside growth with
5 most frangant foliage, and catnip, wit
: its like characteristics, both yield flow
\ ers and leaves that, after drying, al
5 mark etable. Hoarhound, yarrow al
boneset are known to everybody wi
\ tramps the fields. The mustard weet
: are constantly denounced by farme
Z for their invasion of the areas set apa
n for grain crops. And every little bt
g who has been turned loose to play in
Z vacant city lot has been wrrned again
2 !eating the "beans" or playing WI
2 the gaudy flowers of the jimson wee
4 The jmson seeds and leaves appear
q the drug trade as stramOnium. IN
z are easy to harvest, and range In val
4 from q to 8 cents pound. In shO
a imost of the well known weeds a
& vegetable pests appear to have me-
y cjnal uses, if one knows what these a
and the descriptive pamphlet puts
Information into a popular and co
= prehensive form.
A few general instructions as to p
paration of the drugs accompanies,
specific information. For exanp
roots should never be collected duri
~ the growing season. They should
carefully cleansed, rs any dirt clil
ing to them Injuries their market val
Slicing while green is an aid to dry
the thicker roots. They should
dried by exposure to light and {
hut not to direct sunshine, frequen
turned during this process. and :
tected from wet weather.
Leaves and herbs should be collec
while the plants are in full flower,
dried in the shade, as n bright gr
color is desirable for marketing |