The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-02-27
MONEY IN WEEDS.


ment at Washington have been con-
Quoting some very interesting inves
LEGATIONS which indicate that the
American farmers are throwing away
millions of dollars each year by des-
troying weeds that have a high COM
mercial value. Secretary Wilson ex-
presses surprise that wide-awake and
resourceful farmers have not gone in
for drug plant cultivation. making
use of many of the common weeds
now considered pests which hold
sources of great revenue. The Unit
ed States last year bought 1854. 900. 600
worth of drugs and dyes FROM foreign
countries and Secretary Wilson in
sists that every dollars worth of this
material could have been secured from
plants and weeds grown at home.
Accepting the findings of the ex-
pert as true. the average American
farmer has riches lying unnoticed
about his field in the shape of noxious
weeds now destroyed or allowed to
itnproverish the soil. The profit from
this source may be considered assured
from year to year. for the weed crop.
immune from the ravages of pests
and of the blight of drouth. is never
q failure. Belladonna, for instance.
is standard drug, always in demand
at good price. Experiments con-
Quoted at the agricultural department
at Washington show that the plant
will grow luxuriantly in any soil that
will yield wheat or corn. Last year
the United States imported $500. 900
pounds of paprika. valued at 81. 00O,-
600. 1t is prepared from the pods of
q slender plant grown almost exclu-
sively in Hungary. One man in South
Carolina last year raised $500 pound
of this pepper on three acres of ground
and marketed it at nearly 81 pound.
The department furnishes a long
list. of weeds commonly regarded as
nuisances and worthless that may be
cultivated to commercial advantage.
The despised and lowly jimson weed
supplies drug dealer with both leaves
and seeds and its cultivation, accord
ing to the experts, will pay better
than wheat or other staple crops.
Phytolacca Americana sounds expen-
sive enough on the druggists shelf
and proves so when served on pre-
scription. but is only the medical
alias of plain poke root. the war for
whose determination has caused
many a farmer boy to leave home.
Burdock and yellow dock are now I'M
ported because American farmers do
not take the trouble to dig them and
send them to market. Worm seed is
worth about 81 pound and. in fact.
most. of the weeds filling the fence
corners and fallow lands of the ordi-
nary American farm possess CONNER
cial value when properly treated.
Many possibilities Of profit at little
outlay of time and labor are opened
up by the departments report. even
if it changes conditions by relieving
the farme who fails to cut his weeds
from the corn and contempt of his
neighbors.
Mr.. Joe Granny. of Harlan is tend
ing to the business at the Green Bay
Lumber Company during the absence
of Mr.. Alfred Wright.
Out in Butte a printers strike
caused the newspapers to suspend
publication. Business in all retail
lines fell off from 25 to so per cen
within a week. These facts speal
volumes for newspaper advertising
The merchant who neglects to ad
vertise is injuring himself more thai
any other person.