1904.] Chicory Industry in Great Britain. 269 



and in earlier years it is believed to have amounted to over 

 50 per cent, of the quantity consumed. 



The cultivation of chicory has been carried on in the villages 

 in the neighbourhood of the city of York for a considerable 

 period. Before i860 the area devoted annually to the cultiva- 

 tion of this crop in the townships of Dunnington, Heslington, 

 Holtby, and adjacent parishes, is said to have exceeded 

 1,500 acres. The drying of the roots was then undertaken by 

 the growers in kilns on their own farms, and it is known that 

 between 1840 and i860 there were as many as forty-five farm kilns 

 in operation within a short distance of York. An overseer's 

 valuation, dated 1849, shows that eleven of these chicory kilns 

 were situated in the township of Dunnington. Chicory was at 

 that time grown and dried on farms not only in Yorkshire, but 

 also on a smaller scale in Northamptonshire, Lincolnshire, and 

 Cambridgeshire, and the industry is stated to have yielded large 

 profits and to have given employment to a considerable number 

 of men, women, and children. 



Representations were made to the Board by Mr. Lancelot 

 Foster, formerly Lord Mayor of York, and by several Yorkshire 

 Agricultural Societies with regard to the decline in the growth 

 of chicory in Yorkshire and the neighbouring counties, which, 

 it was urged, had been accelerated by the onerous character of 

 the Excise duties and regulations in this country and by the 

 fact that the system of drying chicory in Belgium had enabled 

 the imported article to escape the payment of a portion of the 

 Customs duty and thus disturb the relations of the Excise and 

 Customs duties to the disadvantage of the home grown product. 



In view of these representations, the Board directed 

 Mr. R. F. Crawford, who was at that time the head of their 

 Intelligence Branch, to enquire into the circumstances under 

 which the chicory industry is carried on in this country and 

 in Belgium. The result of these investigations has been 

 embodied in a Report* which has just been issued. 



Chicory, it is observed, is an expensive crop to grow, owing 

 to the large amount of labour required in the preparation ot 



* Report on the Cultivation and Drying of Chicory in Great Britain and Belgium. 

 [Cd. 2169. Price 2d] 



