8 THE LICORICE PLANT. 



The roots are placed in dry cellars, after removing the tops and suck- 

 ers, the latter serving for the next spring's crop to produce " bud," that 

 is, roots iu their early stage for another year, sand being used to cover 

 the roots. After the roots are dry they form the ordinary yellow lic- 

 orice for producing the juice of commerce, except a small portion of the 

 top of the root next the bud ; this, it appears, is not so valuable as the 

 rest, and hence is separated from the root and disposed of to be ground 

 into powder (specimens 4 and 5), which is sold to chemists, and by them 

 retailed for medicinal purposes, for mixing with stout and beer, and as 

 a remedy even for horses in certain cases of sickness. That part of the 

 plant above the ground seems to be of no value except for burning. 



The three and a half years' sucker which is gathered with the licorice 

 plant has now produced "buds," which are reserved for planting in the 

 following spring, and the new suckers also to be planted have been 

 propagated from the old root and are cut off from it before storing it. 

 To preserve these " buds " through the winter they are put either into 

 a dry cellar, and, according to McKenzie, covered over with rotten dung, 

 or, as in Pontefract, " pied," that is, made into a mound out of doors 

 and well covered over with earth or moist sand. 



They seem in this way successfully to endure the cold, wet winters of 

 Yorkshire. 



RENT OF LAND, ETC. 



Some particulars I gleaned as to rent of land, &c. : $30 per acre is 

 the common rent for licorice land, the usual rent for cereal lands being 

 $10 at present. One man and a boy can carry on several acres, but the 

 work is hard during the planting season. 



One informant, Mr. David Longstaff, who has been very many years 

 in the business, stated that he considered $500 a liberal estimate to 

 allow for "laying down" an acre from the start to yield of the first crop. 

 He gave rent as $120 out of this, saying that the two crops of ash 

 potatoes and cabbages hardly more than recouped the grower for his 

 trouble, seed, &c. 



CULTIVATION OF LICORICE IN THE UNITED STATES. 



Mr. Longstaff spoke most hopefully of the introduction of the plant 

 into maiiy of our States, declaring that in Spain it grew wild in great 

 abundance, owing to the hot climate, while he never knew it to be in- 

 jured by worm, parasite, or frost. 



The rainfall of Pontefract, I should say, is, of course, considerably 

 more than that of many of our States. 



Mr. Longstaff corroborated what I had heard from others, that the 

 difficulty would be to obtain buds in sufficient numbers to furnish our 

 would-be growers with seed. He stated that some time ago he had 

 endeavored to obtain five hundred buds for a gentleman in London who 

 wished to try some experiment with them, and it was only with con- 

 siderable difficulty that he finally got them. 



No one seemed to think there was any way of planting by seed alone, 

 at least, from the cultivation of the plant in England. 



As regards export to the States, Mr. Longstaff said that all the 

 licorice grown in Pontefract was used in this country by chemists, &c., 

 and that "Spanish juice" as now admitted, free of duty (it paid duty 

 up to ten years ago), was so cheap that no English-grown licorice was 

 now crushed and made into the material for Pontefract cakes, &c. In fact, 



