MEDICINAL HERBS.

Evening Star, Issue 16335, 30 January 1917, Page 7

MEDICINAL HERBS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Can any of your readers supply formation no to a possible market in \c\y Zealand for medicinal herbs grown in his country or collected ivom the countrv.'dc? Is there any wholesale firm that ‘Wild treat re the receiving of such, either n their dried or fresh state? About two nonths after the outbreak of war in 1914 [quote from an interesting book. ‘Profithlo Herb-growing/ by Ada B. Teetjcn), ho Board of Agriculture and Fisheries ;sued broadcast a leaflet (Xo. 288) on ‘The .ollcction and Cultivation of Medicinal dante in England.’ The following April di I'.. 1.-. Holmes. F.L.S., etc., read a mper on ‘The Cultivation of Medicinal Bants and_ the Collection of Herbs in rreat Britain before the Koval Hortienlural Society, at the request of the Central Jonimittco for National Patriotic Assoeiaions. Widespread interest was aroused ind under the auspices of the Women’s .'arm and Garden Union the Herb-groweiW ■'association came into being. It is the only harmel through v.liich small folk can act, uid through this association very many icople in great Britain are to-day helping :o keep up the supply of many things iceded in medicine, which before the war ivere imported largely from Germany. I :iavc been told that medicinal herbs rcluircd in Xew Zealand are at present aigely imported from the United States If this is so, there should bo a possibility if medicinal gardens ami farms being a useful and paving allair in Xew Zealand. But where can one go for information ns regards what to grow, how to market, and how to prepare for the market? As regards this kilter point, the Herb-growers’ Association have in Great Britain formed many centres, with drying plant, etc., to which can he font fresh herbs from quite small gardens. It seems to me that if the. requisite informal ion and machinery Mere, available, this matter might be made a profitable and useful war-time industry. Lveryone cannot grow vegetables and rrops, but everyone can grow weeds! and it is from many of our commonest weeds that medicinal remedies are made. How Germany captured and organised this trade in “weeds” k told bv Mr Holmes in hie address, adready mentioned, "bo far as I can learn, German children are taught to recognise and collect all medicinal herbs that grow near their homos, and those are dried in small quantities in sheds or attics, and probably finiuned off in farmhouse bread-ovens. . . . A collector or middleman calls round and buys up the email parcels, and forms them into bales to be forwarded to the wholesale herbalist ; and with three profits to be taken—i.e., by the gatherers, the middlemen, and the wholesale herbalists—the herbs can ctill be sent to this country cheaper than a working man can collect them here.’’ Aliss Teetjcn says that in England “ thoughtful people are urging that this matter should be brought to the notice of the local educational authorities” and that the children of the English peasantry should receive practical botanical instruction of this sort at the hands of their teachers.” I shall bo grateful if some of your readers can supply information on this subject as regards this country’s supply of medicinal herbs, and the possibility” of its being made ‘‘a local industry,”— I am, etc., Grace Fox. Ormondville, Hawke’s Bay, January 25c