SAFFRON. The stigmata of the crocus officinalis, dried on a kiln, and pressed into cakes. It is grown in various parts of Europe, as well as in this country. A tracts of land about ten miles across, is applied to the culture of this valuable product in Cambridgeshire. The greatest part of this tract is an open level country, with few inclosunss• and the practice there is to crop the plants for two years, and then let it lie eillow the third. For planting, the fal low ground is well ploughed and meowed, and afterwards dug by a narrow spade into trenches, wherein the roots are put, and subsequently covered over in forming the next trench, the roots in which are in like manner covered with the earth from the succeeding one. The quantity of roots planted on an acre is about 128 bushels. About the end of September, the flowers appear. They are gathered before they are full blown, as well as after, and the proper time for it n early in the morning. The owners of the saffron-fields get together a sufficient number of hands, who pull of the whole flowers, and throw them by handfuls into a basket, and so continue till about eleven o'clock. Having then carried home the flowery they immediately fall to picking out the stigmata or chives, and together with them a pretty large proportion of the stylus itself; or string to which they are attached: the rest of the flower they throw away as useless. Next morning they return to the field, without regarding whether the weather be wet or dry : and so on daily, including Sundays, till the whole crop is gathered.
The next labour is to dry the chives on the kiln. The kiln is built upon a thick plank, that it may be moved from place to place. It is supported by four short legs: the outside consists of eight pieces of wood of three inches thick, in form of a quadrangular frame, about twelve inches square at the bottom on the inside, and twenty-two on the upper part; which last is likewise the perpendicular height of it. On the fore side is a hole of about eight inches square, and four inches above the plank, through which the fire is put in; over all the rest laths are laid pretty thick, close to one another, and nailed to the frame already mentioned. They are then plastered over on both sides, as are also the planks at bottom, very thick, to serve for a hearth ; over the mouth is laid a hair-cloth, fixed to the edges of the kiln, and likewise to two rollers or movable pieces of wood, which are turned by wedges or screws, in order to stretch the cloth. Instead of the hair-cloth, some people use a network of iron-wire, by which the saffron is soon dried, and with less fuel ; but the diffi culty of preserving it from burning makes the hair•cloth be preferred by the best judges. The kiln is placed in a light part of the house ; and they begin with putting five or six sheets of white paper m the hair-cloth, and they lay out the wet saffron two or three inches thick. It is then covered with
3 some other sheets of paper, and over these they lay a coarse blanket five or six 1 times doubled, or instead of this a canvas ' ow filled with straw; and after the fire has been lighted some time, the who e is covered with a board having a considerable weight upon it. At first they apply a pretty strong heat, to make the chives sweat as they call it; and at this time a great deal of care is necessary to prevent, orning. When it has been thus dried about an hour, they turn the cokes of saffron upside down, putting on the coverings and weight as before. If no sinister accident happen dicing these first two hours, the danger is thought to be over; and nothing more is requisite than to keep up a vary gentle fire for twenty-four hours, turning the cake every half hour. That fuel is best which yields the least smoke ; and for this reason charcoal ferable to all others.
The quantity of saffron produced at a crop is uncertain ; sometimes five or six pounds of wet chives are got from one rood, sometimes not above one or two, and sometimes not so much as is sufficient to defray the expense of gathering and drying : but it is always observed, that about five pounds of wet saffron go to make one pound of dry, for the first three weeks of the crop, and six pounds during the last week. When the heads are planted very thick, two pounds of dry saffron may, at a medium, be allowed to an acre for the first crop, and twenty-four pounds for the two remaining ones, the third being considerably larrr than the second. To obtain the second and third crops, the labour of hoeii.g, gathering, picking, &c., already mentioned, must be repeated ; and about Midsummer, after the third crop is gathered, the roots must all be taken up and transplanted. The beet saffron has the broadest blades,—this being the mark by which English saffron is distinguished from the foreign ; it ought to be of an orange or fiery-red colour, and to yield a dark yellow tincture ; it should be chosen fresh, not above a year old, in close cakes, neither dry nor yet very moist, tough and firm in tearing, of the same colour within as without, and of a acrid, diffusive smell. This drug has been reckoned a very elegant and aromatic ; it imparts the whole of its virtue and colour to rectified spirit, proof spirit, wine, vinegar, and water. A tincture drawn with vinegar loses greatly of its colour in keeping; the watery and vinous tinctures are apt to grow sour, and then lose their colour also; that made in pure spirit keeps in perfection for many years.