GROW YOUR OWN PHYSIC

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 121, 19 June 1909, Page 3

GROW YOUR OWN PHYSIC

AND CONVERT YOUR GARDEN INTO A DOCTOR'S SHOP. Oa&caiu is made from the hark of a tree. This tree grows wild on the Pacific slope of .North America, and of late years folic medicine known as cascara sagrada has become eo popular that it takes a million pounds of bark to supply the yearly demand, and the tree itseff will, before very many years have passed, 'become extinct—at least, in its wild slate. Seventeen years ago seeds of this trco were planted in Kcw Gardens; thy are now lino young 20ft trees, flourishing in the open air. Why, then, should we not grow our own cascara'/ Since the. hark fetches 2Gs to jUs a hundredweight, the speculation ought to be a paying one. We buy nearly all our drugs abroad, and pay over three millions yearly for them. The husiness of medicine-farming is a very big one, for it is calculated; that the world at large swallows over forty million pounds' worth of medicines every year. Ask a doctor what arc the two most valuable drags in existence. He will probably tell you opium and quinine. Opium, as we all know, is the juice of a poppy, and the growing of this poppy is one of the world's great industries. There is a tract on the Ganges, 000 miles by 200. of which the diiief farming industry is the growth of opium. China produces 250,000cwt of 'opium yearly, and large quantities are grown in Turkey, Egypt, and Persia.

The seed vessel of the opium poppy is as big as a hen's egg. In India the plant is sown in November, and the .harvest is ready in March. The juice is got by scratching the seed heads'. This is all done by hand labor, and invariably in the afternoon. Some opium poppy is still grown in Lincolnshire. Tlie crop last year was 20 acres.

[ Quinine's home is the opposite side of the world, the cJiinehoim-tree being a native or South America, where it grows in the moimtahr-; at a height of from 5000 ft to 8000 ft. Tile first living seedlings came to Europe only half a century ago. but already quinine is grown wherever the climate will suit jt. There are big plantations u,p in the Xilgiri Hills, in Sikkim, in British JSurma. and in Ceylon. In the latter island there are dozens of planters who make from £-2000 to £SOOO a year out of the eliinohona-tree.

Third only in value after opium and quinine comes that good, old-fashioned remedy, castor-oil. 'Che castor bean is a native of India, but very little of our commercial castor comes from our Indian Empire. The United States produce most of lire coarser kind of oil, while all Hie finest now comes from Italy.

Common castor-oil is of an ugly grceni* tinge, and has' to be allowed to stand in the sun to bleach; but lire-Italian article is Irani [full v c |e a .r when first cold drawn. (Jobl-drawn oil is t|, e best. It is got by crushing the fresh seeds between .steel rollers.'

We ran grow the castor-oil plant in Uugl'and, hilt here if is an annual. In Southern Italy it becomes a tree. 20ft high, and strong enough for a child to climb up into it. About £l2 an acre is' the [profit from a well-managed castorbean plantation.

The rim-barb of medicine is a very different plant from that of which we are now eating the stalks in tire form of rhubarb tart. It is smaller,.with round leaves, and it is the root, not the stalk, whfc-h is valuable. At one time most of our rhubarb root came from Asia -Minor. N'ow we are beginning to grow it ourselves. About lii.ollillli yearly arc produced in this country. ' "' " Most of us who have passed the age of fairly lave active recollections of hideous hot do*, of senna and salts— ' a whole cupful at a draught. Senna is | iii|J|:i!wd to (he world by PW' aml lii'li:i. Hi, th-leafofa'sortofcas,", I which is easily _g,-„„. n . [)-. is one of H,J least paying of medicine, and is now 1 rapidly falling out of favor. _ Homo 1 paper.