CULTIVATION OF GINSENG.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 46, 14 June 1903, Page 7

CULTIVATION OF GINSENG.

LJc Root Is Being Raised -with Considerable Success in Central Wisconsin. '"Ginseng is.bejng cleared, out of central Wisconsin rapidly," t said G. S. Banks, of Newcastle, reports the Washii..7tpn Star, "but the Indians around Horicon lake still manage to find enough of it each season to get on a good drunk with the proceeds. I have never been able-: to learn just what is done with the root, although I know it is shipped to China, where it is used for many purposes. What disease it is supposed .to cure is a mystery to me'. The root when it is dried is shaped something like a small carrot. It is not the same as the Chinese ginseng I have been told, but it makes a satisfactory substitute now that the real article is all gone. At one time the woods around Newcastle were full of it, and it sold for about a do.llar a pound. As the producers gradually came to realize/ the men to whe-s^they were selling it 'were making an enormous profit, they raised their prices about a thousand per cent and then kept it going up. The demand has never lessened any, but it. is probable that there will bs no jrinseng growing wild in Wisconsin after a few years. Some people are raising it in cultivated fields and. making good r>-nnt, although the plant requires a great deal- of care. What is obtpired nea:- our town is mostly sold to Chic? go firms, their representatives taking a trip up the state at the proper seasons of the year."