184 LEGUMINOS^. 



winter, is stacked in the yard around the factory ; it is mostly of the 

 thickness of the fingers, with here and there a piece of larger size up to a 

 diameter of nearly 2 inches ; some of it sprouting. 



As required, the root is taken within the building and crushed under 

 a heavy millstone to a pvilp, water-power being employed. It is then 

 transferred to boilers and boiled with water over a naked fire. The 

 decoction is run off and the residual root pressed in circular bags like 

 those used in the olive-mills. The li(][Uor which is received into cisterns 

 below the floor is then pumped up into copper pans, in which the 

 evaporation is conducted also over the naked fire — even to the very 

 last, care being taken by constant stirring to avoid burning the extract. 

 The extract or 2Msta is removed from the pan while warm, and taken 

 in small quantities to an adjoining apartment where a number of women 

 are employed in rolling it into sticks. It is first weighed into portions, 

 each of which the woman seated at the end of a long table tears with 

 her hand into about a dozen pieces. These are passed to the women 

 sitting next who roll them with their hands into cylindrical sticks, the 

 table on which the rolling is done being of wood, and the pasta moistened 

 with oil to prevent its adhesion to the hands. Near the further end of 

 the table are some frames made of marble or metal, clean and bright, so 

 arranged as to bring the sticks when rolled in them to the proper 

 length and thickness. When thus adjusted, they are carefully ranged 

 on a board, and a woman then stamps them with the name of the 

 manufacturer. Lastly the sticks laid on boards are stacked up in a 

 room to dry. 



In some establishments the vacuum pan has been introduced for the 

 inspissation of the decoction. At the great manufactory of Mr. A. O. 

 Clarke at Sokia near Smyrna, all the processes are performed by steam 

 power. 



Description — Liquorice juice of good quality is met with in 

 cylindrical sticks stamped at one end with the maker's name or mark. 

 They are of various sizes, but generally not larger than G to 7 inches 

 long by about an inch in diameter. They are black, when new or warm 

 slightl}'^ flexible, but breaking when struck, and then displaying a sharp- 

 edged fracture, and shining conchoidal surface on which a few air- 

 bubbles are perceptible ; thin splinters are translucent. The extract 

 has a special odour and dissolves in the mouth with a peculiar strong 

 sweet taste. By complete drying, it loses from 11 to 17 per cent of 

 water. 



Several varieties of Stick Liquorice are met with in English com- 

 merce, and command widely different prices. The most famous is the 

 Solazzi Juice, manufactured at Corigliano, a small town of Calabria in 

 the gulf of Taranto, at an establishment belonging to the sons of Don 

 Onorato Gaetani, duke of Laurenzano and prince of Piedimonte d'Alife, 

 who inherited the manufacture from his father-in-law, the Cavaliere 

 Domenico Solazzi Castriota. The Solazzi Juice destined for 

 the English market is usually shipped at Naples; it has for many years 

 been wholly consigned to two firms in London, and in quantity not 

 always equal to the demand. Of the other varieties we may mention 

 Barracco, manufactured at the establishment of Messieurs Bari-acco at 

 Cotrone on the eastern coast of Calabria ; Corigliano, produced at a 



