240 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. ■■ 



" We recently treated our friends with a dish of coffee made of chiccory, 

 rye and wheat bran stirred up with molasses and browned like the other 

 ingredients. It was pronounced very good, and they were surprised to 

 learn that it contained not a particle of coffee. The root is very solid and 

 does not shrink very badly in drying, so that a rod square will furnish an 

 abundant supply for a family for a year. 



" Wash the roots clean, slice in thin pieces, dry in the sun or in a mode- 

 rate oven, and brown and grind the same as coffee. It is stronger than 

 the pure coffee in equal quantities, gives a good color to the decoction, 

 but does not settle quite as clear as does the genuine article. It is an 

 ingredient in all the burnt and ground coffee sold in the market. The 

 flavor is agreeable to most persons, and used as a partial substitute for 

 Java it does very well." 



The Grade of Country Roads. 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — The following letter has been sent to me: 

 " I think you have fallen into a great error, in making the remark, 

 during the last meeting of thQ Farmers' Club, that railroad horses wear out 

 so soon because they continually travel on a level, or nearly a level, Thia 

 popular error should not be supported by your authority, which is certainly 

 considered unimpeachable by many. On the contrary, I should like to see 

 you enlisted on the side of those who try to conquer this error, which has 

 done and is doing much mischief in preventing improvements in the gr^e 

 of country roads. Will you please read the enclosed to the Club, and let 

 us have some decision on the subject ?" 



" UNDULATING ROADS. 



" There is a popular theory that a gently undulating road is less 

 fatiguing to horses than one which is perfectly level. It is said that the 

 alternations of ascent, descent, and levels, call into play different muscles, 

 allowing some to rest while the others are exerted, and thus relieving each 

 in turn. 



"Plausible as this speculation appears at first glance, it will be found 

 on examination to be untrue, both mechanically and physiologically; for, 

 considering it in the former point of view, it is apparent that new ascents 

 are formed which offer resistances not compensated by the descents; and 

 in the latter we find that it is contradicted by the structure of the horse. 

 The question was submitted by Mr. Stevenson to Dr. John Barclay, of 

 Edinburgh, no less eminent for his knowledge, than successful as a teacher 

 of the science of comparative anatomy, and he made the following reply: 

 ' My acquaintance with the muscles by no means enables me to explain how 

 a horse should be more fatigued by traveling on a road uniformly level, 

 than by traveling over a like space upon one that crosses heights and 

 hollows; but it is demonstrably a false idea, that muscles can alternately 

 rest and come into motion in cases of this kind. Much is to be ascribed to 

 prejudice originating with the man, continually in quest of variety, rather 

 than with the horse, who, consulting only his own ease, seems quite 

 unconscious of Hogarth's Line of Beauty.' 



*' Since this doctrine is thus seen to be a mere popular error, it should 



