268 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



13. CHICCORY. Chiccory is cultivated in some parts of the 

 country. It was first introduced as feed for cattle and sheep, its 

 leaves being abundant, and very succulent. It could, for such 

 purpose, be cut once the first year, and four or five times a sea 

 son, after it became established. It was not, however, found 

 superior, as green feed, to other plants cultivated for this pur 

 pose, and it was thought to give an unpleasant taste to the milk 

 and butter. It is now, however, cultivated almost exclusively 

 for the roots, which are used for the adulteration of coffee, and 

 many persons think with advantage. I am not of that number. 

 The land on which it is to be cultivated must be rich and 

 highly manured, as it is important, where the roots are to be 

 used for this purpose, that they should be forced as much as 

 possible the first season, as they become too old and hard in the 

 second year. Chiccory is to be sown in April, like carrots, in 

 drills, kept clear of weeds, and the plants thinned out to a 

 distance of six inches in the rows. In September, the leaves 

 are taken off, and the plants dug with a fork ; they are then 

 washed and split by hand, and kiln-dried, and sold to other 

 factors, who cause them to be burnt and ground like coffee, 

 which, in that case, they entirely resemble. They greatly 

 deepen the color of the liquid, when prepared as coffee ; and, 

 when mixed in the proportion of a fifth, they communicate no 

 unpleasant taste. Chiccory is deemed very exhausting to the 

 soil, and liquid manure is applied to it, while growing, with 

 great advantage. 



The cultivation of woad was pursued to a considerable extent 

 in the same neighborhood ; but as this, together with madder, will 

 come more fully under view in my observations on continental 

 husbandry, I for the present pass them over. 



14. LUCERN. This plant is cultivated to some extent for 

 the purpose of soiling, and indeed could not be expected to be 

 cultivated as a field crop. It is undoubtedly a much superior 

 forage to vetches or tares, and is more productive than clover, 

 not yielding more weight at a single cutting, but growing much 

 faster, and therefore may be cut more frequently. But it is far less 

 cultivated than either vetches or clover, perhaps for the reasons 

 that lucern, though it will bear it even the first year, does not 

 come into a perfect state for cutting until the third year ; that it 



