So, you want to be a Herbalist?

Great profession. Don't have to pay for herbs, obviously, you can even
sell them for profit -- and let's face it, it's all profit when all you
have to do is pick it up off the ground, isn't that right?

Assuming that it's there for you to pick. Assuming it's there for anyone
to pick.

I know, I know...it's so *frustrating* to spend all those lessons on
Herbalism only to find that the herbs you want are always harvested down
to 5 stems or leaves -- the utter minimum anything should ever be taken
to.

Would it really hurt to harvest it just a little, down to 3 or 2 or even
1 plant...I mean, look at all those greedy people who are keeping it at
5 (or below!) in the first place. You only want a little bit so you can
have some yourself. And even if you end up killing the plant, let those
greedy buggers who are overharvesting it in the first place go through
the trouble of replanting more.

Right. Who in their bloody mind would believe this dung? Yet, this is
the reasoning of two-thirds the people I see stripping the land. The
other third just don't care at all.

Let me help you out with what you should *really* be doing if there's
not enough of an herb you want. Transplant it. Fill the whole bleeding
area with the stuff. Sure, it may hover at 5 leaves or whatever for the
rest of its natural life from other harvesters, but here's how it
works...if there's now 30 plants in the area at 5 leaves each, each new
day during their peak season they'll grow to 6 leaves. That means 30
safe harvests for you every Lusternian day.

Spend a few hours of your time, and you get 30, 60, even 90 (or more!)
plants of anything you want, consistently. Harvest it out, and you get
30, 60, or 90 plants once, and not again.

I would really like to believe that half the harvesting populace isn't
in dire personal need of, say, the pennyroyal that was stripped down to
three living plants total in all the mountain hills on the continent
last month. Not three leaves per plant, but three plants total.
Hmm...maybe that answers my own question. I just wonder why it isn't
curing their stupidity.
dire personal need of, say, the pennyroyal that was stripped down to
three living plants total in all the mountain hills last month.
Hmm...maybe that answers my own question. I just wonder why it isn't
curing their stupidity.

Penned by my hand on the 18th of Shanthin, in the year 101 CE.