Book Description

From the Introduction: OWING to the incompleteness of all existing literature on the cultivation and marketing of ginseng and goldenseal, the writer has practically been forced to the preparation of this handbook. The flood of inquiries that has come to him has revealed the popular interest in this most fascinating and intensive form of gardening and has compelled him to recognize the demand for a practical guide to ginseng growing. To answer by personal letter the almost innumerable questions that come to him in the course of the mail is impracticable, not to say impossible; at the same time all these questions should be answered, to the end of preventing misadventures and failures in ginseng growing and of keeping the cultivation of this profitable plant out of the hands of reckless and unscrupulous exploiters. Nearly all of the literature on ginseng culture now available is notably lacking in a clear statement of the various diseases and plagues by which the ginseng plant is sometimes attacked. To this particular feature the writer has given special attention and has attempted to make his statements understandable to the amateur. In fact, throughout, he has tried to hold the needs of the novice and amateur constantly in mind. The writer became interested in the habits of the wild ginseng plant in his childhood, and ever since then — a period of some thirty years or more — he has been almost continuously engaged in the study and growing of ginseng. His experience in growing ginseng on a commercial scale, however, began in 1900. His effort in the preparation of this book has been to give the reader the benefit, at every point, of his own experience and observation and of his scientific studies and researches. The writer is so largely indebted to many scientific writers and authorities that he feels that his labors have been more those of an editor and compiler than of a writer. This observation applies especially to that portion of the book dealing with the diseases of the ginseng plant. A cheerful and grateful acknowledgment of these authorities has been made wherever they are quoted.