CHICORY, or SUCCORY. (Fa., Chicoree ; GER., Cichorie, Viregwart,) The chicory of commerce is a product of the Chicorium intybus, a plant of the dandelion family, closely related to the common endive. In its wild state, it is indigenous to Great Britain, occurring most frequently in dry, chalky soils, and commonly by the roadsides. It is also cultivated in this country to a small extent ; there are about 300 acres of land under chicory in Yorkshire, and about 50 acres in Northamptonshire. On the Continent, its cultivation is much more general, and very large quantities are grown iu Germany, France, Holland, and Belgium. With ns, the plant is grown almost exclusively for its root ; abroad, the leaves also are utilized as salad, and for cattle feeding, The leaves, too, on being treated like woad (see Dye-stuffs), yield a dye, which is extracted in some districts. Attempts have been made to introduce this useful vegetable into the United States, in Illinois, Long Island, California, and especially Wisconsin ; but the results have been universally unfavourable to its cultivation being followed, in spite of the heavy import duty ou chicory brought into America.
Cultivation,—The chicory plant thrives best upon a dry, deep, rich, loamy soil, with a clay subsoil ; heavy elay, sand, and wet lands are unsuited to it. The seed, 4-7 lb. to the acre, is sowu in drills, 10-15 in. apart. The time chosen is late March for a forage crop, May for a root crop. Such plants as run to seed inust be pulled up, or they would spoil the market value of the bulk, When well up, the young plants are singled out like turnips, to distances of 6-9 in. in the rows, and need thorough cleansing from weeds. Abundant manure is required, as the crop exhausts the soil very much. The harvest commences in September, and may last all through the winter. Each root must be forked up singly, otherwise portions will be left in the soil, and will reappear in the following year. When gathered, the roots measure 1-3 ft. long and 2-4 in. thick, and should weigh about 3 lb. each. The yield is vai iously stated at 4-12 tons of the green root an acre ; the value of the green root is 20s.-50s. a ton, and the cost of cultivation varies from 3/. 15s. to 4/. 10s. an acre. The roots mown in England are said to be more woody than the Continental produce, and attempted heavy cropping is stated to impair the value of the root for grinding.
Preparation.—In order to prepare the roots for market, they are washed, sliced up into small pieces in a turnip-cutter or similar machine, kiln-dricd, and then roasted in iron cylinders, which are kept revolving after the manner of coffee roasters. In England, about 2 lb. of lard are added to every hundredweight of chicory while roasting ; in France, butter is used. This imparts a lustre and colour resembling coffee. After roasting, the roots are spread out in boxes to cool, and when cold, are carefully picked over and ground fine in a mill. The ground chicory is bolted through sieves, and sorted into different sizes, the coarser powder being reground. The loss in drying amounts to 75-80 per cent. of the weight of green root, aud that in roasting equals 25-30 per cent. of the weight of dried root.
The following analysis of ground chicory is from an American source :— Chicory is intensely bitter, possesses heating and debilitating qualities, and is wholly destitute of any sctive principle in the least analogous to those of coffee, tea, and other dietetic drinks. Dr.
Hassan states that it acts both as an aperient and as a diuretic; where any disease of the kidneys exists, it aggravates such tendency, and in some instances leads to disease of those organs. A c,elebrated 'Viennese oculist has described a form of blindness which he considers to be due to a continual use of chicory.
Uses—The only use to which chicory is applied in this country is for the adulteration of coffee, its old medicinal application having quite disappeared. fn some parts of the Continent, notably Belgium, an infusion of chicory alone is largely used as a beverage. Destitute as it is of any valuable principle, it is difficult to account for the persistency with which chicory has been retained as an adulterant of coffee, now for more than a century, to the exclusion of almost every other mode of sophistication. The mixture of chicory with coffee is even legalized to the extent of 2 oz. of the former with 16 oz. of the latter, larger proportions only being considered as adulteration. Chicory is itself largely adulterated, the following substances being most frequently used for the purpose : —Peas, damaged corn, &c., roasted, ground, and coloured with Venetian red ; parsnips, turnips, acorns, oak bark, baked bread, coffee husks, and many other substances. The most certain way to avoid the adulteration of coffee is to buy it in berry, always remembering, however, that patents (!) have been obtained for compressing a mixture of ground coffee and chicory into Q0 form of coffee berries. A simple way of detecting the presence of chicory in ground coffee is to sprinkle a little of the suspected substance on the surface of clear, cold water in a glass ; the coffee will float, while the chicory will sink. The two should be sepsrately removed for examination under the microscope, when the difference of structure at once becomes apparent.
Mercantile and Statistical Information.—The import duties on chicory, imposed on the 2nd of May, 1872, are 18s. 3d. a cwt. on raw or kiln-dried, and 2d. a lb. on roasted or ground. The quantities imported, in 1878, were :—(1) Raw, or kiln-dried, 120,628 cwt., value, 76,586/. ; of this quantity, 95,351 cwt. were entered for home consumption ; the supplies were drawn chiefly from Belgium (106,171 cwt.), Holland (9699 cwt.), and Germany (4301 cwt.). (2) Roasted or ground, 238,902 lb., value, 3202/. ; of this quantity, 47,050 lb. were entered .for home consumption ; the supplies were drawn chiefly from Belgium (171,383 lb.), Austria (46,216 lb.), Holland (10,021 lb.), Channel Islands (6335 lb.) A comparison of the imports for the years 1874 to 1878, inclusive, of raw or kiln-dried chicory gives the following figures :— The cultivation and preparation of chieory is assuming large proportions in the Australian Colonies. The consumption in England, as compared with that of coffee, is 30-40 per cent. Bibliography.= Our Farm Crops,' John Wilson ; Food and its Adulterations,' A, H. Hassan; Coffee and Chicory,' P. L. Simmonds.
(See Beverages—Coffee.)