Vol. LVIII. No. 2555. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 14, 1899. 
*1 PER YEAR. 
CHICORY GROWING IN AMERICA . 
A PROMISING NEW INDUSTRY. 
Money Saved for Americans. 
What It Is. —Chicory, at least in name, is familiar 
to almost every one as an adulterant of coffee. Its 
use for this purpose has been so common that it is the 
first, perhaps the only thing blamed, when a poor cup 
of coffee is drunk. Few people, however, know that 
the most delicious coffee found in hotels and restau¬ 
rants owes, at least some of its refreshing qualities, 
to the presence of this substance. When first-class 
coffee and chicory are mixed in proper proportions 
and prepared for the table in the best manner, the 
mixture, to the unsuspecting palate, is better than the 
coffee alone. Chicory, however, does not improve poor 
or cheap coffees, rather the reverse. 
Largely Imported. —Though chicory is still em¬ 
ployed as an adulterant of coffee, it is not used to the 
extent that is generally supposed. The low price of 
the latter, and the comparatively high price of the 
former that have prevailed for some time, together 
with the cost of mixing, have robbed adulteration of 
its profits. As a 
result, more 
coffee and chic¬ 
ory are now 
sold under their 
own names 
than was the 
case when the 
price of coffee 
ruled higher, 
and thus tempt¬ 
ed fraud. The 
retail sale of 
chicory as such 
is also increas¬ 
ing, and the 
market h as 
been widening 
annually. The 
imports of 
dried root for 
roasting in¬ 
creased from 
1,867,577 lbs. in 
1891 to 16,930,- 
162 lbs. in 1897. 
The values of 
these were re¬ 
spectively $35,- 
560 and $232,- 
494. There was, however, a falling off in the im¬ 
ports of prepared chicory from 9,695,765 pounds in 
1891 to 399,008 in 1897, or a money decrease from 
$298,027.80 in 1891 to $13,899 in 1898. This transforma¬ 
tion was due to the imposition of a duty of two cents 
a pound upon the prepared product. The unfinished 
product, having been only dried, was imported free 
during this period, because it was urged that the 
United States could not grow chicory, and that the 
final preparation of the crude product would give 
employment to a large number of men here. 
In the Spring of 1897, when the present tariff was 
up for discussion, a duty of one cent per pound was 
imposed upon crude or dried chicory root, and the 
duty upon the prepared product was raised to 2% 
cents per pound. About that time, also, the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture took up the investigation of 
chicory-growing to see whether the statements made 
against its cultivation in this country were founded 
upon fact. It may amuse the reader to learn that 
this crop was grown here while the United States was 
still an infant republic, more than a century ago. 
History and Uses.—Chicory belongs to the same 
group 91 plants} as the lettuces, the hawkweeds and 
the dandelion, which last it closely resembles in the 
form of its leaves and in having a white, bitter juice. 
When wild, for it is classed as a weed in many parts of 
the country, it grows from two to six feet tall, and is 
covered with beautiful blue flowers each sunny morn¬ 
ing from midsummer until frost. The root of the 
cultivated plant looks so much like that of the par¬ 
snip that, were it not for its white juice, one might 
easily be mistaken for the other. The leaves of this 
form seldom rise more than 18 inches unless a flower 
stalk is produced, a thing to be avoided always. 
Chicory was well-known to the Romans as a salad 
plant and pot herb, and has been highly esteemed for 
the table in these capacities, especially among Euro¬ 
pean peoples. As garnishes, the green, white and 
pink leaves produced by special methods of culture 
and from selected varieties are very decorative. The 
roots while still young are used as we do young car¬ 
rots. A blue dye has been made from the leaves, and 
it has been proposed to use the roots in the manufac¬ 
ture of alcohol by much the same process as that em¬ 
ployed in the manufacture of this spirit from the 
sweet potato and other roots. At one time, it whs 
widely popular as a fodder plant, the roots as well as 
the tops being used. It was found useful in the feed¬ 
ing of sheep, swine and beef cattle, being particularly 
so upon waste land and poor soils. It has, however, 
given place to Alfalfa. It was seldom fed to dairy 
animals, except as a tonic, because it imparted a bit¬ 
ter taste to the milk when fed in large quantities. 
The dried root has been used by druggists as a sub¬ 
stitute for dandelion, which it closely resembles in 
medicinal properties. When roasted, it is still em¬ 
ployed to give a darker color and to increase the bit¬ 
ter qualities of such liquors as porter. When pulver¬ 
ized, the roasted root has been used to adulterate 
snuff. Chicory has many other uses, but as our chief 
interest is in its employment as a substitute for cof¬ 
fee, we will hasten to the subject of cultivation. 
How It Is Grown. —Chicory may be grown in any 
of the States north of Mason and Dixon’s line. It is 
not very particular as to soil, but will do best upon 
loams of medium texture and fertile enough to pro¬ 
duce paying crops of potatoes or corn. In Europe, it 
is often used to follow the sugar beet, as it is believed 
to exercise a sanitary effect upon the soil. Of course, 
the laud must be drained, manured and otherwise 
well prepared. Phosphoric acid and potash are most 
in demand. Nitrogen, in addition to producing a 
large growth of top, has the effect of making the 
plants run to seed, a process that makes the center of 
the root woody and thus worthless for the market. 
It must, therefore, be given sparingly. 
Chicory should always follow some cereal crop other 
than Indian corn, as the cereals allow the land to be 
prepared in the Autumn, a necessity with the crop. 
A rotation often followed is clover, one crop cut 
for hay the other turned under; potatoes (heavily 
manured); cereal; chicory. Another is clover, corn, 
cereals, chicory. 
The preparation of the soil is the same as for pota¬ 
toes, great care being taken to conserve moisture and 
to destroy weeds. The seed is sown in drills 18 inches 
apart at the rate of about 1% pound to the acre. The 
plants are thinned to about five inches when not more 
than two inches tall. At all times, the land is kept 
free from weeds, and well stirred by cultivators, some 
of which cultivate four rows at a time. 
At harvest, a chicory-root loosener is driven down 
the rows. This lifts the roots two or three inches, and 
leaves them 
standing but 
loosened in the 
soil. The tops 
are then cut off 
and the roots 
either sold at 
once or put in 
temporary silos 
or pits. 
Chicory pro¬ 
duces from 6 to 
10 tons to the 
acre, though 
with good man¬ 
agement, 15 
tons may be 
raised. At 
present, the 
crop is general¬ 
ly contracted 
for at about $7 
a ton, and it has 
been found 
that, at this 
price, a yield of 
five tons will 
generally pay 
all expenses ex¬ 
cept for ferti¬ 
lizers, from the rent of land to the delivery of the 
roots at the factory. With proper rotation of crops, 
the expense of manures should be less than where 
this detail is overlooked. In 1897, when the average 
product was eight tons per acre throughout the coun¬ 
try, the average price per ton was $7.36, and the aver¬ 
age net profit, exclusive of fertilizers, was $23.05 per 
acre. Several growers made more than $40 per acre. 
It must be said in this place that, unless chicory be 
contracted for, the grower will most likely find him¬ 
self without a market, because this crop is not a staple 
like wheat and potatoes, and though its sale is large, 
it is, nevertheless, limited. Of course the root may be 
grown and prepared for home use as any other crop 
might be. 
Manufacture of tlie Koot. —The process of manu¬ 
facture is by no means as complicated as the process 
of making sugar from the sugar beet. The roots are 
first washed like beet roots. A large worm-screw or 
conveyor carries them from one end to the other of a 
long trough against a current of water, so that they 
are being washed by cleaner and cleaner water as 
they pass along. When they come out of the washer 
aod are taken to the slicer, they are as white as washed 
AN-AMERICAN CHICORY-ROOT FACTORY—MICHIGAN. Fig. 8. 
