Coffee and chicory : $b Their culture, chemical composition, preparation for market, and consumption, with simple tests for detecting adulteration, and practical hints for the producer and consumerSimmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Science
Coffee and chicory : $b Their culture, chemical composition, preparation for market, and consumption, with simple tests for detecting adulteration, and practical hints for the producer and consumer
Simmonds, P. L. (Peter Lund)
Chicory; Coffee; Food adulteration and inspection
In some cases chicory has been ploughed up, about 12 inches deep, with a
strong cast-iron plough drawn by six horses, having men to fork each
furrow to pieces with common potato-forks before a second furrow is
ploughed upon it, and women and children following to pick up the roots
and cut off the tops.
But the best method is found to be that of digging up the roots with
double-pronged strongly-made iron forks, the blades being about 14
inches in length, and each fork, with shaft and handle complete,
weighing about 8 lbs.
The plan of ploughing is liable to bring too much of the subsoil to the
surface, and costs quite as much, if not more, than digging.
The advantage which is looked for in ploughing, is to ensure getting the
roots up from a greater depth than can be done by digging, as a great
number break off about 8 or 9 inches long, unless a boy is employed to
assist the diggers, and is very careful to pull the top at the precise
time that the man presses the root upward with his fork.
When dug, the tops should be neatly cut off, and the roots conveyed to
the washing-house to be cleaned. Sometimes they are earthed in pits,
but, generally speaking, they are taken to the washing-house immediately
after being dug up.
In the former case, on the Continent, the roots, with the leaves cut
off, are thrown, in heaps of from four to six feet in length, width, and
height, on the surface of the ground; some straw and then some earth are
put around. But generally the growers deliver the roots to the
manufacturers from the latter end of August to November, by whom they
are immediately dried.
The root is from 2 to 4 inches thick, 3 to 7 inches long, and
occasionally, in a good soil, 3 lbs. in weight. In Brunswick they obtain
from 4 to 6 tons of root per Brunswick acre.
The weight of the crop depends entirely upon the richness or poverty of
the soil, the tillage and manure it has received, and other
circumstances. The fault in England is the striving to grow as heavy a
crop as possible, to the very great detriment of the quality of the root
for powder.
In Brunswick the price of the root in the original state varies from
20s. to 40s. per ton, according as the crops have been good or bad, and
an acre will realise from 5_l._ to 7_l._ The cost for cultivation is
from 3_l._ 15s. to 4_l._ 10s.; 1½ to 2 tons is about an average crop.
Mr. William Strickney, who has grown and prepared chicory for the
manufacturer to a very great extent, on a large farm near Hull,
estimates the expense of the cultivation of chicory there at 4_l._ 5s.
6d. per acre, and if we add to this 2_l._ 10s. for rent, manure, &c., it
gives 6_l._ 15s. 6d. The produce on suitable land he states to be from 8
to 12 tons per acre, and it requires 4 tons of green root to make 1 ton
of dried. In the dried state the root is worth from 12_l._ to 24_l._ per
ton. Take 10 tons per acre, at 2_l._ 10s. per ton, and this would leave
a profit per acre of 18_l._ 4s. 6d.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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