CHAPTER XIX. 

 CHICORY AND ENDIVE. 



LARGE ROOTED CHICORY. Cichorium intybus. 

 French, chicoree sauvage ; German, cichorie ; Danish, sichorie; Italian, 

 cicoria; Spanish, achicoria ; Portuguese, chicoria. 



THE ENDIVE. Chicoria endivia. 



French, chicoree endive; German, endivien ; Dutch, andijvie; Danish, 

 endivien ; Italian, indivia ; Spanish, endivia. 



The chicory plant cuts no figure at present in the general gar- 

 dening of Californians. The use of the blanched leaves, forced in 

 the dark from mature roots bedded in sand, is confined to a few 

 foreigners who know the barbe-de-capucin of the French or the 

 ufitloof of the Germans. It is a delicious vegetable, either raw, 

 boiled, or as a salad. Nor are the leaves in their natural state much 

 used here for salad. Both of these uses of the plant should be more 

 widely known in California, for the cultivated growth of the roots 

 in this state is very fine, and for running wild, as an escape from 

 flower garden culture, it might be denounced as a vile weed were 

 not its large blue flowers so beautiful upon the yellow of our dry 

 summer fields and roadsides. 



Viewing the plant as yielding a root rather than a foliage 

 crop, it has been of much importance in this state. The root, sliced, 

 dried, roasted and coarsely ground, is the "chicory" of commerce 

 the adulterant of coffee which nearly every one denounces in theory 

 and many enjoy in practice; for the occurrence of absolutely pure 

 coffee is so restricted that it often, at first, offends the palate of the 

 unaccustomed drinker. California chicory growers for years con- 

 tested the American markets with German chicory, and a very 

 capacious factory was in operation near Stockton for more than 

 twenty-five years, and at one time there was another near Sacra- 

 mento. The vicissitudes of tariff legislation have made" the business 

 uncertain, sometimes very profitable, sometimes not, according as 



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