Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
February,  1895.  J 
Cultivation  of  Licorice  Root. 
77 
States,  is  about  £8  per  ton  ;  the  crop  of  a  ton  and  a  half  would  be 
worth  $60,  costing  $20,  or  a  net  profit  of  $40  per  acre  for  the  three 
years,  equal  to  $13  per  acre  per  annum  as  the  profit  of  growing  the 
root ;  but  if  the  fresh  root  is  at  once  made  into  extract,  as  I  pro- 
pose, the  profit  would  be  much  greater  even  at  4  cents  per  pound, 
just  half  the  present  price  of  the  extract. 
My  own  experience  in  growing  the  plant  in  the  United  States 
has  thus  far  been  very  moderate  in  results,  owing  to  causes  that 
might  have  been  prevented,  viz.:  inundations,  unsuitable  buds  for 
planting,  and  possibly  a  want  of  care  or  interest,  or  experience,  on 
the  part  of  those  in  charge,  to  say  nothing  of  the  effect  of  un- 
usually hot  and  dry  weather  on  the  young  plants  before  they  had 
become  acclimated.  I  have  grown  the  plants  in  several  places  in 
New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Louisiana  and  Florida,  and  still  have 
some  growing  in  the  different  localities,  and  believe  it  to  be  quite  a 
feasible  matter  to  introduce  the  industry  on  a  large  scale. 
In  1856  W.  R.  Prince,  of  Flushing,  L.  I.,  contributed  an  article  in 
The  Horticulturist,  Phila.,  on  the  cultivation  of  licorice  root  in  the 
United  States,  showing  the  possibility  of  it.  In  1854  the  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  published  in  its  annual  report  an  account  of  its 
cultivation  in  this  country. 
In  1886  Mr.  Isaac  Lea,  of  Florin,  near  Sacramento,  Cal.,  grew 
several  acres  very  successfully,  but  abandoned  it  for  want  of  a  home 
market  and  for  more  profitable  use  of  the  land  occupied  by  it. 
There  are  still  some  plants  growing  on  that  farm  as  well  as  in 
several  other  places  in  California.  Mr.  Lea  was  an  enthusiast  on 
the  subject  of  growing  the  plant  on  a  commercial  scale,  and  had 
visited  Louisiana  and  Florida  with  the  object  of  establishing  the 
enterprise  in  one  or  the  other  of  those  States  ;  but  finally  aban- 
doned the  project  for  personal  and  domestic  reasons.  I  mention 
these  facts  to  show  that  the  plant  has  been  grown  here  by  prac- 
tical men  whose  opinion  was  that  it  could  be  grown  on  an  ex- 
tensive scale,  but  who  knew  nothing  of  the  manufacture  of  the 
extract  from  it. 
This  paper  is  far  from  being  exhaustive  of  the  subject ;  much 
practical  information  has  been  accumulated  and  my  experiments 
are  still  going  on,  and  I  believe  with  the  necessary  capital  in- 
vested in  the  business  on  a  sufficiently  large  scale,  it  need  not  be 
many  years  before  the  entire  wants  of  this  country,  of  licorice 
paste,  could  be  supplied  from  the  home-grown  root,  as  indicated. 
