942 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



ture, may consult Coujs d' Afrnculture Complct, Paris, 8vo, edit. 1823, art. Tabac ; Carver's Treatise 

 London, 8vo, 1779; Tatham's Essay, London, 8vo, 180(); the Experienced Bremen Cigar Maker, or fun- 

 damental and practical instructions for making twenty-five sorts of cigars according to the latest expe- 

 rience, Chemnitz, Kretschmar, 1824, 8vo ; Schmidt's Tobacco Culture of the French and Dutch combijied 

 with the Mode of preparing the Plant for Use. Dresden, 8vo, 1824. Arndd. The two latter works are 

 in German. 



SuBSECT. 4. Other Plants used in Domestic Economy, which are or may be cultivated in 



the Fields. 

 6157. Many garden plants might be cultivated in the f elds, especially near large towns, 

 where manure is easily procured, and a demand for the produce exists. Among such 

 plants may be mentioned the cress, parsley, onion, leek, lettuce, radish, &c. There are 

 also some plants that enter into the agriculture of foreign countries where the climate is 

 not dissiinilar to our own, which might be very effectually cultivated in this country were 

 it desirable. Among these is the chiccory, the roots of which are used as a substitute 

 for coffee. The lettuce might be grown for its milky juice, as a substitute for, or rather 

 a variety of opium. Of dwarf fruits, as the strawberry, currant, gooseberry, raspberry, &c., 

 we add nothing here, having already alluded to them in treating of orchards. 



6158. The agriculturist who attempts to grow any of the above plants can hardly expect to succeed 

 unless his knowledge extends beyond the mere routine of country husbandry, either by reading and the 

 study of the nature of vegetables, or by some experience in the practice of gardening. No farmer on 

 a moderately extensive scale will find it worth while to attempt such productions, whatever may be his 

 knowledge or resources ; and for the garden-farmer, or the curious or speculative amateur, we would 

 recommend observation and enquiry round the metropolis, and the reading of books on horticulture. All 

 that we shall do here, will be to give some explanation of the culture and management of cress and 

 chiccory. 



6159. The garden cress (iepidium sativum L.), too well known to require any 

 description, is grown in the fields in Essex, the seed being in some demand in the 

 London market. 



6160. It is sown on any sort of soil, but strong loam is the most productive. After being well pulverised 

 on the surface, the seed is sown broad-cast and lightly harrowed in. The season of sowing for the largest 

 produce is March, but it will ripen if sown the first week in May. The quantity of seed to an acre varies 

 from two to four pecks, according to the richness of the land ; the seed will not grow the second year. No 

 after-culture is required but weeding. The crop is reaped and left in handfuls to dry for a few days, and 

 then threshed out like rapeseed or mustard in the field. 



6161. The use of the cress seed is chiefly for sowing to cut for young turkeys ; and for forcing salads by 

 the London cooks on hot moist flannels and porous earthenware vessels. A very considerable quantity is 

 also used in horticulture, it being one of the chief early salads, and cut when in the seed leaf. I'he haulm 

 is of very little use as litter, and, on the whole, the crop is exhausting. 



6162. I'he cidture of the chiccory as an herbage plant has already been given (5514.) ; 

 when grown for tlie root to be used as a substitute for coffee, it may be sown on the same 

 soil as the carrot, and thinned out to the same distance as that plant. 



6163. These roots are taken uv in the first autumn after sowing in the same manner as those of the 

 carrot. When they are to be manufactured on a large scale, they are partially dried, and in tiiat state sold 

 to the manufacturers of the article, who wash them, cut them in pieces, roast them on a kiln, and grind 

 them between fluted rollers into a powder, which is packed up in papers, containing from two ounces to 

 three or four pounds. In that state it is sold either as a substitute for coffee, or for mixing with it. But 

 when a private family cultivates this plant for home manufacture, the roots are laid in a cellar among sand, 

 and a few taken out as wanted, washed, cut into slices, roasted in the coffee roaster till they become of a 

 brown colour, and then passed as wanted through the coffee mill. 



6164. The value of the chiccory as a coffee plant. Von Thaer observes in 1810, is proved by its having been 

 cultivated for that purpose for thirty years. Dr. Howison has written some curious papers on the subject 

 in The Caledonian Horticultural Memoirs (vol. iv.), and both that gentleman and Dr. Duncan approve of 

 its dietetic qualities. The former indeed says, he thinks it preferable to coffee, which may h^ a matter of 

 taste, as some prefer the flavour of the powdered roots of dandelion to that of either coflTee or chiccory. 

 Dr. Duncan is of opinion that chiccory might be cultivated with great national advantages as a substitute 

 for the exotic berrv. {Disco, to Caled. Hart. Soc. 1820) Bosc says the decoction of chiccory roots is whole- 

 some, but that it has nothing more belonging to it of coffee than the colour. He sees no objection to its use 

 as a substitute, but deprecates as fraudulent its mixture with the powder of real coffee. 



6165. The value of the chiccory as a salad plant appears to us not to be sufficiently appreciated in this 

 country. Great quantities of the blanched leaves of chicccry are sold in the markets ot the Netherlands 

 very early in the spring, and supply a grateful salad long before lettuces are to be had. Ihe roots are 

 taken up on the approach of winter, and packed in cellars in alternate layers of sand, so as to form rid?es 

 with the crowns of the plants on the surface of the ridge. Here, if the frost be excluded, they soon send 



g 1 1 out leaves in such abundance as to 



affbrd a supply of salad during winter. 

 If light is excluded, the leaves are per- . j, 

 fectly blanched, and in this state are Mf | 

 known under the name of Barbe de v^Sl 

 Capucin. On ship-board it is customary 

 to use a barrel of sand with numerous 

 holes {fig. 811.), or a hamper, for the 

 same purpose. {Gard. Mag. vol. ii. and 

 Ency. of Gard.) 



6166. The Astragalus boe'ticus 

 (Jig. 812.;, an annual distin- 

 guished by its triangular pods, a 

 native of the south of Europe, is 

 cultivated in Hungary ( 630.), 

 and in some parts of Germany, 

 for the seeds as a substitute for 

 coffee. The culture is the same 

 as that of the common pea or tare. 



