Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-11-29
OUR NATIONAL WANTS
They Might All Be Supplied
From Our Own Soil.
SAVING OF MILLIONS
RESOURCES OF OUR TROPICAL
POSSESSIONS.
Coffee, Sugar, Medicinal Plants, Rub
Der and Many Other Rare Products
Imported-Could Be Raised Here.
BY WILLIAM f.. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Written for The Star and the Chicago Record
Herald.
Secretary Wilson has a theory that we
can supply all our national wants from
our own soil, with the helpso of the Philip
pines, Porto Rico and the Hawaiian Is
lands We are now importing a billion
dollars worth of goods from foreign
countries; the greater part OF 1t raw ma
teriaI for the use of our manufacturers,
such as rubber, silk, hides, hemp and
wool. and food products such as sugar,
coffee, tea, cocoa and drugs. 1t is one
of Prof Wilson's hobbies that we ought
to raise all of these things on own
land, and while he is in the Agricultural
Department he proposes to push that Idea
into practical form as far as he is able.
He thinks we can raise all our coffee,
sugar rubber, chocolate, medicinal plants
and tropical raw materials in the Philip
pines, the Hawaiian Islands and Porto
Rico-and he does not even stop at tea,
which is now being cultivated on a small
scale in South Carolina. We buy sixty
million dollars worth of coffee from Bra
I'll and other South American countries,
which he believes may be grown in our
own insular possessions. The coffee of
Porto Rico and Hawaii is of very high
grade. 1t is much better than the average
Brazilon product. At present, however,
the cultivated area is limited and the sup
ply is correspondingly small.
The same remarks apply to sugar, for
which We now spend sixty and seventy
millions of dollars every year in foreign
countries. We get small amount from
Hawaii and Porto RicO-nearly all they
have to export-but they have enormous
areas of good sugar lands lying idle
which Secretary Wilson thinks may be de-
n W.T. thot vfrtt1
not be dependent upon foreign countries
for any important staple. He is a home
market man and believes In the encourage
ment of the planters of the Philippines,
Hawaii and Porto Rico. in order that they
may have every advantage in competing
with Cuba and other tropical countries in
the markets of the United States. 1t Is
largely a question of labor, however. The
coffee and sugar exports from our insu-
lar possessions will never be much larger
unless supply of labor can be found.
Raising Medicinal Plants.
We now import from fifteen to twenty
million dollars worth of medicinal plants
and crude drugs manufactured from them;
a greater part of which, Secretary Wilson
says, can be raised In our own country.
Many interesting experiments are now
progressing in the bureau of plant indus
try a Washington. and in several other
places in the United States where the eli
mate and soil are particularly favorable.
Seeds and shrubs brought from foreign
countries are planted where the rainfall,
the soil and other conditions seem to be
like those of their native lands, and some
remarkable results have already been at
tanned. The great difficulty of growing
medicinal plants in this country, however
is the high price and scarcity of labor
Most of the care and cultivation of the
plants and their preparation after they
are grown must be done by hand. In
foreign countries the picking and prepara-
ton of leaves, seeds and berries, and the
grading and preparing them for market,
are done by women and girls of the peasant
class 1t must be done with the hands;
1t cannot be done with machinery. We
nave no peasant class in this country and
1t is difficult to persuade the women in
the rural districts of the United States
TO undertake such work. They are not
compelled to do IT; they are not required
10 earn their living, or contribute to the
family income, as is almost invariably the
case in other countries That is why we
raise no silk.
The southern states offer the most fayora-
bic opportunities for the cultivation of me-
dfciDal plants, and prices have risen so rap
idly that there is great profit In gathering
roots, barks. leaves and other botanical
specimens which grow Wild in that section
of the country The climate and soil are
also suitable for raising the classes of
plant life that are needed, and If they had
little instruction the colored women In
gathering burdock, dandelion roots, couch
grass, sarsaparilla, sassafras and other
herbs. and IN cultivating ginger ipecac
vanilla beans, castor beans and caraway
seeds, which would grow grow easily In
the south, but are not raised to any ex-
tent in this country.
Profits in Roots and Seeds.
Take lcorice root for example. We i'm
port about 100000 worth every year from
the Mediterranean, where the plant grows
Wild and the roots are gathered and dried
by peasant women. Licorice culture is car
ried on to considerable extent in England
by market gardeners. They raise II be-
tween rows of cabbages and potatoes and
IN II, the fall the roots are dug up and dried.
The warm climate and rich soil of the south
are especially adapted to licorice growing
and the colored women might make con-
siderable amount of money in that way
Belladonna and similar plants NAV also
be grown, land caraway, anise carda NOM
and coriander seeds bring big prices in the
American and European markets. We Inn
port every year nearly two million dollars
worth of such seeds, nearly a million dol
lars worth OF vanilla beans, and $3.50, 600
worth of castor beans. Our imports sta
tistlcs show $4,000 worth of ginger and
100000 OF sarsaparilla root brought from
foreign countries; $2S2o00 of lemon oil:
S125.0O Of oil of lavender; 5000 600 of bef.
gamot Oil: and about 100000 worth Of
altar Of roses, which, however, might be
grown in the southern states. All Of our
supply now comes from Phillipopolis, in
European Turkey. where the roses are Gull
tivated on the sunny hillsides by women
and girls. When the buds unfold they 60
cut with gunny sacks and scissors and nip
off the BLOSSOMS, which they carry to an
open shed. There the harvest is dumped
upon a bench and they carefully pull out
the petals and throw them into baskets
After the baskets are filled the contents are
dumped into retorts. half filed with boiling
water. The steam passes through a still
and as it cools, the oil drips from the end
of the worm. The unaduterated oil of
roses is worth several dollars pound and
single drop of 1t will perfume a room
forever.
Philippine Camphor Trees.
Camphor is made in very much the same
way. and We import $4,000 worth. every
year from Formosa and the East Indies,
when there Is not the slightest doubt that
1t could easily be procured in the Philip
pines. The forests of those islands abound
in camphor trees, but the population is 30
| sparse and labor is so scarce that the In
| dustry has never been developed. Indeed
| the riches of the forests in the Philippines
are beyond calculation-not only in timber