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of the plant had added to the productiveness of the soil, 
and the farmers would find their other crops better than if 
they had not grown chicory. 
In a commercial point of view, after noticing the time 
when coffee was first introduced into this country, in 1662, 
Mr. Wilkinson referred to the increase in the consumption 
of coffee from 1807, when the importation was upwards of 
one million pounds, to the last return, when it was thirty- 
six millions of pounds per annum. The quantity of chicory 
used was about eleven million pounds, — not a fourth of what 
was consumed in the name of coffee. Formerly, when 
chicory was scarce, it was bought in Germany at a high 
price, to improve coffee. 
In answer to a remark, that chicory had nothing to re- 
commend it but its cheapness, he would observe, that such 
a dictum involved its own negation, because cheapness was 
no recommendation for what was worthless. The foreign 
ingredient, coffee, he maintained, was improved rather than 
deteriorated by a mixture with chicory. And, so far as he 
was concerned, he should certainly say he should prefer an 
infusion of coffee with twenty per cent, of chicory, to that 
which was prepared without that article. With respect to 
its effects upon the system, it was admitted that chicory was 
good in a variety of ways. 
In conclusion, he observed that rich light land was the 
best adapted for the cultivation of chicory, and clay land the 
most unsuitable. He had known land produce as much as 
fifteen tons per acre, and as little as nine tons. Ordinary land 
would produce about eleven tons, or two tons of manufac- 
tured chicory. 
In reply to R. M. Milnes, Esq., M.P., Mr. Wilkinson 
said that, in respect to chicory as an article of farming, the 
price varied from £15 to £35 per ton. The ordinary price 
would be about £20 per ton in its manufactured state. The 
