Show i 1 I DRUG FARMING NEW INDUSTRY Cultivating Essential Plants to tc Maintain the Supply FORMERLY GREW WILD I NATURAL SOURCES OF MEDICINE DRAINED Philadelphia Pa April A Drug farm farmIng farmIng Ing lug Is 15 a Industry and a most profitable one It will pay any anyone one with witha a common sense knowledge of the science of making the earth bring forth her In Increase increase increase crease or even with plain common sense sans knowledge of farming to try raisins raising plants for medicinal use The time is ripe for the continual draining of ot the re resources resources resources sources of field and swamp for material to alleviate human Ills fils has bas resulted resul d at last in Ina a drug famine and the plants that have heretofore grown wild must now be cultivated The pioneer In this new farming Industry Is a little littie man who will answer to the name of ot Hellerman but who has done enough for suffering hu humanity humanIty humanity manity to entitle him to the full tun benefit of his complete patronymic of Lewis El Ei Elwood Elwood wood Hellerman His drug farm Is at Fox Chase near here and to this novel culture establishment Journey medicine men and druggists In quest of material for their medicaments and also with roots and seeding plans for tor experimental pur purposes purposes purposes poses The experimental drug plants are In trusted to the care of the drug farmer who knows exactly where to give them their start in life whether they need shade or sun for their continued ing and where and under what conditions they are likely to reach the stage where It Is profitable to return them to the dis die dispenser dispenser panzer of medicines It Is a curious looking farm like Uke no other agricultural reservation familiar to rural eyes ejes Row after row of strange plants inspire the inquisitive visitor to question the tho drug farmer concerning the purpose of their culture Hellerman is al always always always ways glad to give information Rows of Strange Plants There said s d he pointing to a long row of innocent looking green plants Is a bed of the most deadly poison polson known to the druggist Never mind the Latin name The popular name Is hemlock and It will cure human Ills for good and all with the expedition of a rattlesnakes bite It poisons in the most violent manner pro producing producing producing death from paralysis In a particular lar ugly Socrates It who committed suicide with hemlock Yet like many deadly poisons In the proper hands and administered In minute doses It Is a valuable remedy Hemlock Is a profitable drug to cultivate as It Is not plentiful and the prices obtained are high A novelty over in that corner Is to tobacco tobacco tobacco bacco I grow It solely for medicinal pur purposes purposes purposes poses A small quantity Is all that Is needed and end I only grow It because I am occasionally asked for It and dont want to be shy of any drug plant required by my customers Here Is a drug that I am sin cultivating to take the place of aconite Its full name Is too long to repeat on a warm day like this but I call It angus which Is near enough for the oc occasion occasion occasion casion This also Is a four ear plant Its a long time between crops I admit but what do you think of ot ginseng which takes eight years to bring to maturity With plants as slow as that In reaching fruition Its time drug farms were started everywhere to save the Inevitable famine in material for medicine Just to give you ou some slight Idea of the enormous Increase In the value of drugs owing to the growing scarcity of wild material take the It seems impossible to find any more grow growing growIng growing ing wild and the price has advanced from 25 cents a pound to the sum of a pound with the demand still ex ceding the supply It Is difficult to cult vate The conditions of soil temperature etc must be just right Fat Prices Are Paid Some experiments with drug plants have proved a total failure In this country We have never been able to get the sect seed seedof seedof of the aconite bryonia to germinate here There are climatic reasons why It refuses refuse to thrive It can be grown from bulb but bu bunot not from seed and this restriction has ha prevented our adding It to the rest of ot the happy happ family of domestic drug plants In Inthe Inthe Inthe the little farm Most of the plants you see growing here sell for 10 cents a pound and I find the profit well repays the trouble of cul cultivation cultivation Some sell for more satisfactory For Instance there Is that bed o of a remedy that Is used to alle alIe alleviate alleviate catarrhal troubles It sells for 50 cents a pound and there Is an ever widen widenIng widening widening Ing market for It as the natural supply gets scarcer Over there th re Is some felix feUx mass a drug used for tapeworm It Is practically extinct In a wild state In this country and should hould be raised profitably In all the states Also the mar a most valuable drug which we weare weare weare are trying to cultivate here It has cease ceased to exist In a wild state The botanists who hunt drugs for the market have root rooted rooted rooted ed out about the last plant and Its worth no ones while to search for it any more moren It n must be cultivated or the druggist will wil have haye to find a substitute for It In com corn compounding compounding pounding prescriptions That pretty little row of plants Is silver sUver It Is a native of South America but takes most kindly kind to the climate of Pennsylvania It Is used In optical troubles largely Bugs are our chief bugaboo On ac account account count of the slowness of the plants In reaching maturity the natural enemies o of plant life have unusual opportunity to get In their destructive work Then the drug plants seem to attract them In some strange way They appear to have an es especial espedal pedal liking for tor the very material that the human family detests and will only nl take when ordered to by a medical man Possibly the drug dru plants are beneficial to the Insect world also and the pests that are the chief drawback to success In drug farming are sick bugs drawing on natures remedies for ailments What Is Rood good for men women and children ought I suppose to be good for bugs But rm Im not growing drugs for bugs although the two words seem to have an affinity and If It I knew how to cultivate the plants In a way that would save them from an attack of Insect enemies I would be happy About two acres Is sufficient for a drug farm Some of the plants require shade and some thrive best In the sun With the former It Is well wen to plant some corn to shelter them from the suns rays There Is no guidebook guide hook to drug farming that I know of or The prospective drug farmer must learn which plants like shade and which like sun by practical experience as asI asI asI I did Druggists and botanists bring their seeding plants here and leave them with me I am continually experimenting In Inthis Inthis inthis this way with new drug plants Drug Druggists are alive aUve to the Imminent danger of f a famine In medicinal plants and there Is a keen desire to learn which of ot the vegetable remedies can be cultivated suc sue successfully In a few years I suppose drug farmers will be common all allover over the country for forthe forthe forthe the plants must be cultivated and the thed demand d m nd will soon bring the supply It should always be a profitable as well as asa asa asa a most Interesting Industry |