ABSTRACT
In 1752 Chinese buyers inspected several shipments of American ginseng from Canada and found that the roots had been improperly treated and that a good portion of the roots was not even ginseng. The gathering and marketing of the root began in a small way but picked up momentum when it was found that the range of the plant extended throughout the Eastern United States. By 1868 the market value of ginseng had doubled, and in that year, over 370,000 pounds of American ginseng reached Chinese buyers. During the Sino-Japanese War and the World War II years, there was little American ginseng exported to China, although the amount did reach 185,976 pounds in 1946; a downward trend appeared in 1947 and later years. Ginseng hunters and trappers frequently carried digging tools, food, etc., and went into the woods to hunt for the “green gold,” and sometimes even women and boys hunted the roots.
