bookings' garden manual. 



155 



during October and November; plants one foot apart 

 in the rows. 



To prepare the white ginger for market, dig it up 

 when quite ripe and the stalks are dead ; select the 

 finest and soundest roots \ carefully wash, scrape, and 

 dry them. 



To make preserved ginger, dig the roots up when 

 nearly full grown, and quite tender ; after being washed, 

 scald and scrape them. Let them stand in cold water 

 about twenty-four hours, changing the water three or 

 four times ; boil in syrup for t welve hours ; make fresh 

 syrup and boil again for twelve hours ; pack in jars 

 and cover with the syrup. 



CHICORY— (Chicorium Intybus). 



The vast quantity of chicory imported, and subse- 

 quently retailed under the name of coffee, should 

 afford sufficient inducement to some enterprising farmer 

 to enter upon the cultivation of this plant. 



Soil and situation : The soil should be rich, light, 

 and moist, but not wet ; and the situation open. 



Cultivation : Prepare the soil early in August, and 

 sow in drills two feet apart ; cover slightly. When 

 the plants are large enough to handle, they may be 

 transplanted in wet weather. If the surplus plants 

 are not required, they will have to be hoed out to nine 

 inches or one foot apart in the row^s, according to the 

 richness of the soil. The leaves may be blanched and 

 used as endive, and the surplus will be found valuable 

 at fodder. If too luxuriant, and the foliage is not 

 used for the foregoing purposes, it should be thinned 

 to prevent the plants smothering each other. As the 

 seed is slow to germinate, it should only be sown on 

 clean land, or it will be smothered by quick-growing 

 weeds. The produce in Victoria is said to have been 

 as much as twenty-five tons per acre — the average at 

 home being about fourteen tons. 



