40 VEGECULTURE 



suitable condition for forcing. Lift the crowns as carefully 

 as possible, preserving all the strong roots, for these are the 

 material for ensuring a supply of plants in the future. After 

 removing these roots, place from six to nine crowns in a nine-inch 

 pot, using any light, porous mixture. See that the crowns 

 are just above the level of the soil, when potting up is com- 

 pleted. A good watering will settle the earth around the roots. 

 The pot may be placed under the greenhouse stage, with another 

 pot inverted on it, in order to exclude all light. Boxes or other 

 receptacles may be pressed into service, but pots are better. 

 A few crowns thus potted up at intervals of fourteen days 

 will keep up a nice succession of this succulent vegetable. Where 

 no artificial heat is available, the crowns may be forced without 

 lifting from the soil in which they are planted by the aid of a 

 few Seakale pots, or boxes in fact, anything which excludes 

 light relying upon littery manure, leaves, etc., to give the 

 necessary heat. 



CHICORY (Cichorium intybus) .This is another floral 

 vegetable of merit, greatly neglected, and but little appre- 

 ciated. In the first place, it grows wild inalmost all parts of 

 Britain and Europe, and a plant or two, removed from the 

 roadside into the garden, prove very ornamental in the flower- 

 border. Again, seeds of the large-leavedkinds sown thickly, 

 in drills, produce long leaves like those of a Dandelion, which, 

 although bitter, may be used in salads, or,better still, thoroughly 

 blanched like Endive, when the bitterness is eliminated. The 

 leaves may be gathered several times during the year. As a 

 vegetable, Chicory becomes a delicacy. For this purpose, the 

 large-rooted, or Witloof, Chicory is used, the latter being a product 

 of Belgium, where this vegetable is grown to perfection. The roots 

 of these plants are used in the manufacture of coffee chicory. 

 The varieties are the Magdeburg, Brunswick, and Witloof. 



Seeds are sown in the open ground, in June, in drills, and 

 the resulting plants grown on until end of autumn, when the 

 roots are removed from the ground, shortened to about eight 

 inches, all secondary shoots removed, and the leaves cut off. 

 All roots bearing several heads or indifferent foliage are dis- 

 carded. A trench i opened in the ground, sixteen to eighteen inches 

 deep, and the roots placed upright in it a short distance from each 

 other ; the necks thus being quite eight inches below the surface 

 of the soil. The trench is then filled with good, light soil. A 

 layer of manure or leaves may next be placed over the spot, 



