Extract from the New Monthly Magazine, on the "American Trade with
China."
Above all, a remarkable production deserves to be mentioned here,
which grows in America itself, and is almost peculiar to the United
States; a production which is almost wholly unknown in Europe, but
has been in use in China from time immemorial, and is held there
in extraordinary esteem. This is the root Panax quinquefolia, or
Ginseng. The Chinese writers call this plant a precious gift of
nature, sweeter than honey and the honey comb, more valuable than
fine gold, and jewels, and pearls, a glorious gift of Heaven,
bestowed by the gods upon mortals for their happiness, and their
enjoyment on earth. Placed on a par with the philosopher's stone,
it is called the food of immortality, and it passes among the
priests and physicians for a universal remedy, wholesome for all
weakness of the frail body, applicable to all diseases; nay, it is
even said to prolong life, invigorating the nerves, strengthening
the understanding, cheering the soul, soothing the mind, taming the
wild passions, and bestowing inexhaustible delights upon our mortal
existence.
The reigning dynasty of the Mantchews, in China, were proud that
Nature produced this wonderful root, with such magical powers, in
their original country; for it was found in Chinese Mogul Tartary;
but sparingly scattered in certain places and districts. Here it
was considered as one of the regalia of the crown, only the emperor
had the right to have it gathered, and guards were posted at the
places where it grew, that no one might presume to take openly, or
by stealth, what was for the emperor alone. How fortunate was it for
the Americans, that they accidentally discovered, not very long ago,
that this root, so highly esteemed in China, and paid for there with
its weight in gold, which it had been always supposed was only to be
found in Tartary, as the Chinese had always boasted, was indigenous
in the United States, and might be there collected in far greater
abundance than in China, hitherto the only country where it was
known to grow.
It grows in the United States, in the whole of the immense tract
from the Canadian Lakes to Georgia; is found even in the northern
states of New York and Pennsylvania, and flourishes in Virginia and
the two Carolinas. Nature has spread it here, particularly in the
tract between the Alleghany mountains and the sea, and it thrives
especially where the mountains take a southwesterly direction. It
loves a fertile soil, and cool shady spots, on the declivity of the
mountains.
While Europe produces nothing which it can offer to the Chinese in
exchange for their productions, America possesses in this remarkable
plant an article peculiarly its own, which is, above all others,
proper for the trade with China.
Many of your readers may, perhaps, be curious to be better
acquainted with a plant so esteemed by the great Chinese Mandarins,
and in the Harems.
The stalk of this plant, which attains the height of about a foot
from the ground, is of a dark red. It is adorned with elliptical
leaves, three of which always grow together, and each of which is
again divided into five little leaves. On account of the symbolical
meaning attached to the numbers three and five, which these leaves
present to the eye, the plant obtained, in ancient times, in China,
the character of particular sacredness. The growth of this singular
plant is extremely slow, but then it attains an age unusual in
plants of this kind; when it has stood fifteen years or more, the
root it not yet an inch in diameter. Every year the stalk makes at
the upper part of the root, at each new shoot, marks, which show
by their number the age of the plant. The root itself is of an
elliptical form, and commonly consists only of one piece. The plant
bears but a few seeds; two or three grains are all that can be
gathered from one stem; these are of a bright red colour, in shape
and size like those that may be collected from the honeysuckle. They
ripen in America, in the latter half of the month of September, and
their taste is more aromatic than that of the root itself, but less
bitter.
In China the greatest care is taken in gathering this valuable
root. It is not done till it has attained the highest perfection
and maturity: this is during the autumn and winter. In America they
long committed, from ignorance and inattention, the great fault of
collecting the root from the spring to the first frost. As it is
always soft and watery at this season, it naturally shrunk together
in drying, became very hard, and lost not only in weight but in
goodness. This mistake is still committed in some parts of the
United States, where the inhabitants make the collecting of the root
only an occasional object; and when they are hunting or travelling,
dig up the plant at all seasons when they happen to meet with it.
But by this they deprive the ground of a valuable production, which
would be far more valuable if it were tended and cultivated with due
care. Though the Ginseng roots thus collected by ignorant persons
do not fetch in China the high prices which are given for such as
have attained their proper maturity, yet the demand for them is not
the less brisk. The American merchants in the interior purchase
large quantities by the pound, or the hundred weight, of the country
people, who employ themselves in collecting and digging this root,
and gain by exporting it to China, about one hundred per cent.
But the profit is incomparably greater when Ginseng roots, perfectly
ripe, and carefully gathered at the proper time, are brought to
Macao or China. The Americans begin to be more sensible of this
advantage, in proportion as the intercourse with China becomes more
active. They have made themselves better acquainted with the nature
of the plant, and the taste of the Chinese; employ greater care in
gathering, and acquire more skill in digging it. One man can gather
about eight or nine pounds daily. Hence the quantity of this article
exported from the United States increases at the same time that its
quality improves; and the trade with Ginseng roots in the Chinese
markets continues to become more and more profitable to America. The
exportation already amounts to at least 500 cwt. annually.
In China they understand the art of preparing the Ginseng, in such a
manner, that it appears semi-transparent: in this case a much higher
value is set upon it. In America they have also learnt this art, and
the process employed is very simple.--The merchants in the American
commercial towns, purchase the roots so prepared, and rendered
partly transparent, at six or seven piasters apiece; and sell them
in China, according to the quality, at from fifty to a hundred
piasters apiece. Even in Louisiana and Kentucky, they carry on this
extremely profitable export trade to China.