CHICCORY. Cichorinm. This plant, also called Succory and Wild Endive (C. intybta), is a naturalized foreigner, and, being hardy, where it gets hold is a troublesome weed. C. eildiria, in Europe, is esteemed and used as a salad plant, when about a foot high, the tops being tied together, over the heart, and the sides earthed up, in order to blanch them. The seed shonld be sown early in the spring in drills sixteen inches apart, covered three-quarters of an inch deep, and thinned, when large enough, to six or eight inches in the row. The cultivation and blanching of Endive is precisely similar and the plant is a much nicer bitter salad than chiceory. The principle use of Chiccory is for the roots, which when sliced and kiln-dried, are used in. the adul teration of ground coffee. It is raised by sowing the seeds upon very rich, deeply-trenched ground, in drills eighteen to twenty inches apart, keeping the rows clear of weeds, and thinning to abont six inches in the row. In the autumn the tops are cut and the roots raised by a peculiar plan, which cuts the tap root some eighteen inches below the surface, slightly lifting the roots; or by a plan which turns the roots out of the soil, at the same time covering the cut tops, the plan being to go around the field, one row being removed before the next is worked. With the sub-soil lifter, however, the earth is not turned, and this plan is preferable. The cul tivation of Chiccory has been introduced into the -United States several times, and abandoned. The following was the plan pursued at a plantation twelve miles east of Sacramento, California, in 1872, the cultivation having since, we believe, been abandoned. The yield was reported at fif teen tons per acre. of green roots; and the yield of the State was placed in that year at 5,000 tons. The farm near Sacramento, used for the cultiva tion of chiccory, consisted of 180 acres, of which seventy acres were rich bottom-land. Sixty acres of this were seeded to Chiecory in January and February, 1872, and were gathered in July, August, September and October. The laud was prepared by deep plowing, replowing six or seven inches deep just before planting, thorough ly pulverizing with a harrow. The seed was put in by a drill-machine, in drills about one foot apart. As soon as the shoots appeared above
ground, twenty-five to thirty Chinamen were employed in weeding and hoeing, working about ten weeks, till the weeds ceased growing. In harvesting, four Chinamen, with sharp hoes, cut off the tops, which were turned under by an eight-horse plow, while the roots were turned to the surface. Laborers following the plow threw the uncovered roots in piles, and others coming after with a potato-hook, uncovered whatever plants were not unearthed by the plow. The roots were then loaded and carried to the factory, where they were passed through a shoot in order to remove sand, etc. From , thence the roots were passed to the cutter, a knife-armed cylin der which, revolving rapidly, cut them in strips two or three inches long by one-quarter-inch or more in thickness and width. These were raised to a large drying platform, where they were spread in a layer about two inches thick, and stirred daily for a week, at the end of which period they were sufficiently cured for roasting and storing. The roastiug was done in the second story of the factory, which was three stories high. The roaster was a sheet-iron cylin der, four and a half feet long by two feet in diameter, supported by shafts, and revolving in a brick oven. Five bushels constituted a charge for the roaster, and two hours were required for roasting. When this was completed, the chic cory was poured out, cooled, and passed to the first floor, where it was ground in a mill. The chiccory was then sieved, the coarser portions reground, and the rest passed through a fine sieve before barreling. The factory turned out five tons of chiccory per week, running in the day-time only, employing a ten horse-power engine for motive-power. The cultivation of chiecory has never proved remunerative in the United States, unless it may have been in Cali fornia. It is to be hoped it never will, since its cultivation is simply for use as an adulterant to coffee. While its use can not be distinctly stated as injurious, it is, nevertheless, a fraud upon the buyer of coffee when mixed therewith. If the good wife chooses to furnish chiccory as a family beverage, well and good, the pure chiccory can be bought or raised since its cultivation is as easy as that of the parsnip or carrot.