A Well Kept Secret: Ginseng Farming--100 years of American Ginseng Prices by D F Curran Available on Amazon.com In a well-tended garden, shaded from the sun by carefully constructed networks of wooden lath, invisible to planes or helicopters, the green leaves, and red berries of this plant prosper. The farmers who grow it keep their operations as secret as they can. They can earn more than $100,000 per acre. Sound like something illegal? Actually these farmers are cultivating a legal crop, American ginseng. And though the prices fluctuate as with any crop this exotic crop can be worth as much as $70 plus dollars per pound and 2500 pounds can be taken off a single acre. A small group of people have been making money from this crop since the earliest settlers came to this country. In 1716 a Jesuit missionary, Joseph François Lafitau read another Jesuit's account of a fabulous plant that was used in the Orient as medicine. Lafitau described the plant to his friends the Iroquois. His friends showed him that the plant was growing right by his cabin and the trade in American ginseng was born. John Jacob Astor started his vast fortune with a permit to trade from the East India Company and
For young readers
Book data: Open Library