FACTS FOR FARMERS.

Waikato Times, Volume II, Issue 99, 17 December 1872, Page 2

FACTS FOR FARMERS.

CULTURE AJ\ T D PREPARATION OF CHICORY. (Qpkk.vslaxder.) Chicory has been cultivated here, as a forage crop principally, for many years. Our German and French followcolonists are especially partial to it, and in a few eases have extended chicory culture to over an acre. As a su!p, however, a few perches only are grown, and used for feeding cattle. After the navelty has worn off, few care to mis their coflee with chicory, and although several attempts liave been made to dry the root and sell it to grocers in town, the trado lias never reached tho point at which it pays to devote attention to it. The seed may be sown either in February or March for a winter crop, or in August for a summer crop. It vegetates sluwlv, and the soil should be perfectly clean to prevent weeds from choking the young plants. Ilb of seed gives plants for about a quart or of an acre. When lit to handle thev are set ont in rows two feet by about eight inches ; or the seed can be drilled into rows two feet apart, and thinned out, like turnips or beets, with the cultivation oi which chicory corresponds, when we grow for roots. It tor forage,, the seed can be sown broadcast at the rate of 6 lbs to the acre, and the tops can either be picked oU or bladed, or cattle may be turned in to graze them down. In some cases the roots have yiolded feed for four years.

Like all other crops of a similar character, chicory will never ittain to perfection, or even a full and profitable growth, if the plants are allowed to stand too closely together. The stem is branched, and clothed on all sides with, leaves up to its vory top, so that to be confined for room would be in every way prejudicial to the healthy development of the plant; the roots then grow thin and tapering, and produce weak, innutritions stems; whereas, if allowed full scope on

good soiLs, thej' rise to six or eight feet in height, having proportionate bulk and foliage, and yielding a very rich and nutritive milky juice. Chicury is of far more value to mow and consume in stable or byre than to. graze. It has been much used as a pasturage for sheep, and found to be very useful in this respect, for a small extent of chicory ground will fatten a large number of slice)).; but tlicu it is only Iho radical loaves shooting up close to the ground which are continually cropped by the sheep, the stalks, not affording them proper nourishment. The best way is to let the plant reach its full' growth, the full succulence being retained, until the flower buds appear, in which state (not being permitted to flower) it has attained its greatest perfection; it may then be cut off near the ground, and will be eaten by all kinds of stock with the greatest relish and benefit. As it is a plant of such speedy growth, and in all seasons, wet or dry,, it cannot be too strongly recommended for general use, and more particularly for the smaller occupiers. Cowkeepers would do well to cultivate it. Chicory is now grown in many parts of England, chiefly for tho sake of preparing " a substitute of coffee" from the root —a practice which has existed 011 the continent for nearly seventy years ; " and of all plants," says Von Tliaer, " which have boon proposed as substitutes for coflee, and which, when roasted and steeped in boiling water, yiolded an infusion resembling coflee, chicory is the only one which has maintained its ground," This plant has been considered to like a dry sandy soil the best, but has been proved to grow the best (as regards its roots) upon a loamy soil, with a clayey subsoil, dry, deep, and rich ; in fact, chicory very much resembles the carrot, and the mode of cultivating one is much like that of the other. Although the roots ponetrate a long way downwards, they become too thin below fourteen or fifteen inches to be useful, and the utmost care is also required in order to get up that portion, of the root which will prove profitable. In some cases chicory has been ploughed ujj about twelve inches deep with a strong 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, the women and children following to pick up the roots and cut ofT 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 fourteen inches in length, and each fork, with shaft and handlo complete, weighing about 8 lbs. The plan of ploughing is liable to q,uite as much, if not more, than digging. The advantage which is looked for in ploughing is to insure the getting the roots up from a greater depth than can be done by digging, as a great number break off about eight or nine incites long,

unless a boy is employed to assist the digger, and is very c'ireful to pull the top at the precise time that tho man presses the root upwards with his fork. When dug, tlio tops should be neatly cut off, and the roots conveyed to the washing house to be washed clean. Sometimes "they are covered down in pits or graves, as a matter of eouvenicncr, but generally speaking they a"c taken to the washing house immediately ai'ler being tuken up. They are then cut into small pieces by a turnip cutter, or by hand, the object being to have the pieces of as uniform a size as possible. The slices are then dried in a kiln ; this process reducing the chicory from 75 to. 80 per cent. It is then marketable, and is usually sold to the drysaltery and grocers, who.roast and grind it as they do collce. Chicory root roasted hu3 "been employed as a substitute for coffee for more than eighty years. (Constanlini Muchricht vond. Cichorianwiirzal, 1771.) It is now employed extensively as a mixture with coffee, which, although allowed, cannot be regarded other than an adult eration. Chicory root is heated in iron cylinders, which are kept revolving as in the roasting of coll'cc. In England about two pounds of lard are added to every cwt. of cliichory during thc> roasting process; in Franco butter is used ; by this alustre and colour resembling that of coffee is imparted to it. When roasted the chicory is ground to powder and mixed with police, Chicory has been supposed by some persons to be wholesome and nutritive, while others contend that it is neither one nor the other ; however, no obvious ill effects have been observed to arise from its employment, if we except the occasional tendency to cxcitc diarrhcoa when it has been used to excess. The analysis ol cliichory by John gave twenty-five parts watery bitter extractive, three parts renin, besides sugar, salammoniac, and woody fibre. Watl procured inulin from it, but the quantity varies greatly in different roots.

AN ENGLISH, AGRICULTURIST'S EXPLANATION OF SCARCITY. (Empress.) Amongst the causes which hare operated to cnhancc the value of animal food we must put in the foreground the rapid increase of the population, which, in spite of an extensive emigration, is still adding its millions to the consumers, and rendering a continually increasing importation necessary. In the next place, the stock of cattle and sheep have greatly fallen off in consequeuce of the two years of drought—viz., I'B6B and 1870 —in which so scarce was fodder of all kinds that tens of thousands were consigned to the butcher less than half fattened, for want of the means of keeping them, or because the expense would greatly exceed the increased value when fat. The price of lean stock has greatly advanced in consequence, and good three-year-old bullock, which sold previously at 13/ or 147, each, at present fetch from 10/ to 20/— sayan average of 18/. Now, in estimating the value of a lean bullock, the grazier calculates the weight when he will be fat—at Christmas if fed highly, or in the spring if ordinary keeping is allowed. Supposing lie will feed up to 50 stones of 14 lbs each, and the price in the lean state i 3 131, this makes, the present value 5s 2d per stone. Thus, reduce the 13/ to shillings—26o3—and divide by 50, you ascertain that to be the-value of the purchase, and the buyer then estimates the value when fat. When the lean bullock could be purchased at that price—l 3 carcase of the fat one oould be bought at about 8s or 8s 6d per stone of 14 lbs each, which would yield him. an increase in value of *71 or 8/ for the keep and attendance, from which deduct the original cost, or 13/, leaves the balance of 11 or 8/ for the grazier—little enough if it were not for the manure the animal makes in the meantime.

But how is it now when the grazier gives 18Z for his three-year-old steer? Reckoning him as before at 50 stone, be costs lean 7a 2£d per stone. At the present time the price of 'the best bullocks by the carcase is 5s 6cl per stone of 8 lbs., or 9s 7£d per stone of 1-4 lbs., leaving a profit for the grazier of only 2s oi'cl per stone, or 61 0s lOd for eight or nine months' keeping, if not still longer. It is very plain from, this statement that neither the grazier nor the butcher are in fault as to the high price of meat; that tho one has his losses to reducc his moderate profits and that the other is actually a loser by the high price, being thereby compelled to purchase at an advance quite equal to the increased price of the fat bullock, after all the trouble and expense of his keep and attendance, besides the risk of losing a bullock now and then by disease, to. which the grazier is too much exposed to expect wholly to escape. We question whether there is another business man who can show a cleaner bill of health, or, in other words, who can prove on an average so small profits with large risks on so considerable an outlay. We have further to observe that whilst we have reckoned the cost of the bullock—lean —at the actual price, we have estimated his value when fat at the highest price the market returned on Monday last at Smithfield,.on which the butcher gains a profit of 2id per pound, if he could sell the whole bullock.. Whereas a large portion of the inferior part.3 is sold at 2d and 3d below the price of the best joints, which will probably reduce lu3 profit at least Id per pound, beyond the casual' losses, which in hot weather are sometimes heavy. More meat has probably been spoiled during the last few days, -when the hot weather came with, a rush, than was perhaps ever previously known. If the foregoing is the real state of the meat question— and with some personal knowledge, and further investigation into it, we are quite convinced of its general correctness^ —we cannot be surprised at the increase of the importations of live and dead* meat, or at the-little effect these-produce on the market otherwise-than by preventing a higher price being obtained. In looking over the returns of the-Board of Trade we find that there is a very large additional importation in the first- five months of 1872 over the importations

of 1871 of animal food of most kinds, as tho following oxtracts will show, in tho live months of tlio present year, 1872, from January 1 to May 31, as compared with those ot 1871 in the same period Excess in 1871 over 1872. Excess in 1872 over 1871. Stones. Stones. Bullocks ... 123,339 Cows ... 26 Swino ... 136,320 Calves 5~.0,., ■RnMpp 122.604 1 Sheep and lambs 1,497,01b Cheese 986,712 Dead meat ... 65-1,504 Salt beef ... 482,316 Bacon ... 5,010,472 - llams ... 454,/ 70 Total 1,851,133 ' Total ... 7,701,942 Deduct ... 1,8.. 1,833 Excess in 1572 over 1871 ••• .0,850,109 Or 731,263 cwt- 7o stones. There is one other element, acting upon tho price of meat, as well as on every article of domestic economy, the elleet ot which begins to'be very sensibly felt. This is the vast mereaso of metallic wealth that is flowing m upon the commerce of the world, and is likely to produce still greater changes in the social economy. We refer here to the produce of tho gold fields in California and' Australia, wlneh, independent of other sources, aro now yielding, m round numbers, at least 12 millions sterling each pur year, or -4 millions together. It is impossible to draw a limit to tlio extent to which this Eldorado will bo made available, but this much is certain, that so much gold cannot be introduced, into the commercial world without causing a rise m tho price of all descriptions ol commodities.