72 
Cultivation  of  Licorice  Root. 
/Am  Jour  Pharni. 
\    February,  1895. 
THE  CULTIVATION  OF  LICORICE  ROOT  IN  THE 
UNITED  STATES.  *— 
By  Henry  N.  Rittenhouse). 
Many  interesting  accounts  of  the  cultivation  of  the  licorice  plant 
are  to  be  found  scattered  through  the  works  on  materia  medica, 
agriculture  and  gardening  during  the  past  one  hundred  years,  and 
the  methods  therein  described  are  essentially  the  same  as  those 
pursued  at  the  present  time,  and  which  it  is  not  the  intention  to 
reproduce  here. 
Licorice  root  is  cultivated,  in  the  true  sense  of  that  word,  in  so 
few  places  in  the  world,  and  to  so  small  an  extent  as  an  article  of 
commerce,  as  hardly  to  be  worth  mentioning.  One  or  two  places 
in  England,  and  a  like  number  in  France  and  Germany,  embrace  all 
the  localities  I  happen  to  be  acquainted  with,  and  the  area  of  land 
under  cultivation  varies  from  a  few  rods  to  an  acre  or  two,  five  acres 
being  an  exceptionally  large  field. 
The  large  amount  of  licorice  imported  into  this  country,  and 
which  also  supplies  the  needs  of  the  world,  grows  wild,  without 
any  care  or  cultivation  whatever.  Italy  and  Spain  supply  a  small 
percentage  of  thaftotal  amount,  probably  5  to  8  per  cent.,  while 
Southern  Russia,  along  the  line  of  the  Transcaucasian  Railway, 
supplies  two-thirds  of  the  remainder,  and  Asia  Minor  and  Syria 
the  other  one-third.  The  total  amount  of  all  kinds  imported  into 
the  United  States  is  about  80,000,000  pounds  per  annum,  on  an 
average.  In  1872,  the  imports  were  about  5,000,000  pounds,  and 
the  consumption  still  increases  yearly. 
The  licorice  plant  grows  over  an  area,  extending  from  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean,  on  the  south  (latitude  300),  to  Siberia,  on  the 
north  (latitude  5 5 °),  and  from  the  western  shores  of  Europe  to  the 
plains  of  Persia  and  farther  India,  and  from  low  levels  to  1,500  feet 
above  the  sea  ;  thus  showing  over  what  an  immense  area  of  land  and 
variety  of  soil  and  climate  it  will  grow  vigorously.  In  Afghanistan 
it  forms  the  principal  fuel.  It  is  a  hardy  and  tenacious  plant,  almost 
impossible  to  eradicate  where  it  once  obtains  a  foothold,  and  grow- 
ing without  care  or  cultivation  when  once  fairly  started.  The  men- 
tion of  these  conditions  under  which  the  plant,  which  furnishes  the 
root  of  commerce,  is  found,  is  to  illustrate  its  hardy  nature. 
As  the  plant  grows  wild,  and  generally  on  wild  and  uncultivated 
land,  and  is  dug  and  prepared  for  market  by  cheap  Asiatic  and 
