Ch. XXIV.] ON €IIICCORY AND SPURREY. 303 



CHICCORY, 



Or Succory, is a common English perennial weed, which some years ago 

 was much brought into notice by the late Arthur Young, "as a forage 

 plant; he having grown it extensively on his own farm, and having stated, 

 in the 'Annals of Agriculture,' that "on various sorts of soil, there is no 

 plant to rival it." * It lias, indeed, been long extensively cultivated in 

 many parts of the European Continent as a substitute for clover ; and 

 during the late war, when the Berlin and Milan decrees prevented the 

 importation of colonial articles, the dried roots were ground, and used 

 tliroughout Germany instead of coffee. The only use made of it in this 

 country — and that to a very limited degree — is as a field-plant for green 

 forage. It grows in the form of lettuce, producing blue flowers ; and 

 being a hardy plant, which withstands the greatest severity of winter, it 

 comes very early forward for the support of ewes and lambs, to which 

 stock it is chiefly appropriated, though in nutritive properties we imagine 

 it is rather deficient. 



It may be grown in almost any soil, however poor, provided it be dry and 

 open, and yields several cuttings during the season ; but the most appro- 

 priate soil is a deep sandy loam. It may also be either sown broadcast, 

 along with Lent corn, at the rate of 12 or 14 lbs. to the acre, or drilled ; 

 and the seed is sometimes mixed with 4 or 5 lbs. of trefoil. It, however, 

 requires deep ploughing ; and as judicious culture in the early stages of its 

 growth is necessary to secure its future luxuriance, the following is 

 recommended by an intelligent agriculturist, who has lately grown it, as the 

 best mode of culture : — 



" Let the seeds be sown in a bed early in March, and when the leaves are 

 about three inches in length, which they will be by the beginning of May ; 

 let them be planted out in well pulverized ground, in rows nine inches 

 apart, and six inches from plant to plant in the rows. The weeds must be 

 kept down by hoeing in the first season, but no further trouble is neces- 

 sary for seven or eight years, till the plants begin to show symptoms of 

 decay, when they may be thrown out, and the ground cleared of the roots, 

 and laid under a fresh plantation. 



" If allowed to stand too close, the root is small, and the stem short and 

 wiry ; but, under the above treatment, even in ordinary soils, and with 

 little manure, the stems will rise to six or seven feet in height, and they 

 will be so close as to admit of being covered with foliage, the stem vary- 

 ing from three-eighths to five -eighths of an inch in diameter near the 

 ground, and being replete with a rich nutritive milky juice. The succu- 

 lence is retained in full vigour till the flower- buds begin to appear, when 

 the stems should be cut near the ground, and carried to the byre, where, 

 even at the first trial, they are devoured with avidity — indeed, no plant 

 cultivated in this country will bring the cow-feeder nearly an equal return 

 with the chiccory ; and it should hold a prominent place in the garden of 

 every cottager in the kingdom, whether to be used as coffee by the family, 

 or as green food by the cow or pig." t 



To this, however, we must add, on the authority of Von Thaer, that it is 



* " In an experiment made by the late Duke of Bedford, it was sown on a fallow in 

 Aujj;ust, and fed about Michaelmas five sheep an acre for a month. In the following 

 year it kept six sheep an acre from the second week in April until Michaelmas. Ano- 

 ther piece, sown upon one ploughing, kept ten sheep an acre in the first year, from the 

 second week in April to July 22 ; and then seven per acre to the end of October ; and in 

 the following year seven per acre." — Ann., vol. xsxix. ; Eedf'ordsh. Rep., p. 437. 



f Gorrie, on the Culture of Chiccory. — Quart. Joura. of Agric, N. S. vol.iv. p. 206. 



