Chicory . 32 & 
©r corn. He calculated to feed his dairy of 120 milch cows dum 
ing the succeeding summer chiefly on chicory, and in the winter 4 
on potatoes steamed. He gave me 2lbs. of the seed, which I dis- 
tributed partly to Mr. John Adlum then of Muncy, and partly to 
Mr. Samuel Wallis, but I believe they made no use of it. 
His mode of steaming his potatoes is curious. A large iron 
pot is let down into a hole even with the surface of the ground. 
A fire place is made underneath, and a brick flue at the opposite 
end. Round the rim of the pot is a wooden kirb about 2 or 3 inch- 
es broad. When the water boils, a hogshead full of potatoes 
(well washed and scrubbed at a trough under the pump) is roll- 
ed over the boiler within the wooden kirb. The bottom of the 
hogshead is pierced full of holes. A loose cover is put on the 
top. The steam ascends through the holes in the bottom, and in 
half an hour, the potatoes are boiled. The hogshead is then roll- 
ed off and another rolled on. I think he had 3 iron boilers for the 
supply of his cattle with steamed potatoes. Potatoes were at that 
time worth about 2s 6d sterling the load of 240lb. washed, or 250 
in the dirt. A bushel of potatoes will weigh about 721b. The 
average crop of Lancashire and Cheshire, cannot be taken at less 
than 400 or 450 bushels per statute acre. This is effected by dint 
of manure laid on at the rate of 10L. sterling an acre, and accu- 
rate weeding, which the potatoe crop pays for, and brings the land 
in heart for 2 or 3 years. 
In 1797, that promoter of British Agriculture the late Duke of 
Bedford, directed a poor field of brushy soil on his farm at Wo- 
burne, worth from 7 to 10s. an acre, to be sowed with chicory. 
The first year’s produce supported seven Leicester sheep averag- 
ing 221b. a quarter, per acre, for six months. His grace was of 
opinion that no other artificial grass on the same land would have 
equalled this. 
Arthur Young says that the Chicorium Intubus grows wild in 
Suffolk and other parts of England. The Rev. Mr. Muhlenberg of 
Lancaster says it is a common plant or rather weed, about Lan- 
caster. They both agree that in its wild state, it is not worth any 
thing. But by long course of cultivation the French, and from it, 
the English seed, is now a very valuable improvement on the wild 
succory. The Chicory I have seen growing about Northumber- 
land and in Lycoming county, is certainly not equal to what I saw 
at Mr. Wakefield’s in 1793 : In 1797 and 1793 the seed sold in 
London for a dollar and 5s the lb. T. C. 
rn 
J, T 
