An Arkansas cattleman lately instructed me with some surprise that he had offered a single cow for $1,000. Such costs are wonderful right this moment, however think about what our farmer ancestors would have thought. Till effectively into the twentieth century, an enormous share of Arkansas farmers needed to scramble to maintain meals on the desk. One of many methods farmers made do was by extracting pure assets, together with a protracted custom of digging wild plant roots for his or her financial worth.
Of all of the medicinal herbs present in Arkansas, ginseng is the very best recognized. Often referred to as “sang” by old-time residents of the Ozarks the place it’s a native, ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) has been exported for hundreds of years to China the place it was generally known as an aphrodisiac. One supply studies that ginseng offered at eight to 10 instances its weight in silver in 1784 Pekin.
Ginseng grows in wealthy woodland soil, usually in colonies. It’s a low plant, about one foot tall with three massive leaves, every composed of 5 leaflets. It has a single and inconspicuous flower, however the ensuing crimson seed pod is showy. It was the fats ball of woody roots that diggers sought. In the course of the Twenties a pound of dried ginseng roots fetched $7 to $15, not a small quantity.
Diggers laid declare to ginseng colonies, preserving the placement secret if potential because the hills and hollows have been filled with overall-clad males looking for sang. Jacob H. Petree, a farmer from the small Newton County group of Compton, took a distinct strategy. After experimenting with cultivating the crops from seeds, Petree and a son developed a large ginseng rising operation which made Compton a middle for the commerce.
One other generally harvested wild plant was goldenseal, the much less well-known associate within the “sang and seal” duo. Goldenseal (Hydrastis canadensis) is just like ginseng in that it’s not a presupposing plant, has a single inconspicuous flower, and produces a crimson raspberry-like fruit which incorporates 10 to 30 seeds.
The Petree household, ginseng kings of Newton County, additionally cultivated goldenseal in massive portions. This was a laborious process as a result of it takes a full three years earlier than a goldenseal plant has a totally mature rhizome (because the thick horizontal root is understood botanically). Within the years simply earlier than World Battle II, younger women and girls have been employed to plant the seeds, being paid $2 for sowing a blue glass Vicks salve jar filled with the small seeds.
Harvesting the roots was a chore, The roots needed to be lifted with a digging fork, the soil shaken off, the roots completely washed, then positioned in massive sacks for drying within the solar. One Newton County girl recalled her Forties childhood residence as stuffed with “bedsheet sacks” of drying goldenseal. “These sacks have been carried outdoors to dry on sunny days, after which introduced again indoors each evening.” Seeds have been additionally harvested and replanted.
Goldenseal is a kind of herbs which had many makes use of, particularly as a topical anti-microbial. However lots of the informally skilled people doctors–often referred to as “yarb docs”–swore that goldenseal would treatment all the things from indigestion to canker sores. The U.S. Military bought massive quantities of goldenseal till the event of penicillin in 1928.
Quite a lot of different crops have been additionally harvested for the herb commerce, together with bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis). Bloodroot, which has a finger-size root filled with crimson juice, was used for a bunch of medical remedies, however right this moment it’s acknowledged as a doubtlessly harmful herb.
Root diggers normally discovered a prepared marketplace for their merchandise. Nation shops usually bought medical herbs and roots or accepted them in lieu of money. In Mena, deep within the Ouachita Mountains, W.H. Graves had a big retailer within the Twenties the place he marketed for “hides, furs, & wool, and all types of roots.” In the present day Mena is residence to Rowland Botanicals, which advertises for “goldenseal, bloodroot, snakeroot, ginseng, toothache, tree bark, and wild indigo.”
Replace: Final week I wrote a few invoice being thought of within the particular legislative session to strip the 111-year-old Arkansas Historical past Fee of its powers and switch the company from the Division of Parks and Tourism to the management of Stacy Hurst, the director of the Division of Arkansas Heritage. The laws, which was drawn up in secret, was adopted regardless of widespread public outrage. Now we face the unhappy actuality that Arkansas historical past rests squarely within the fingers of a single state bureaucrat. Keep tuned for additional developments.
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Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist dwelling in Scorching Spring County. E-mail him at Arktopia.td@gmail.com. An earlier model of this column appeared Jan. 22, 2012.
Editorial on 05/29/2016