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.
Another competent agricultural authority states that the price of 2¼ tons of dry root for the acre, at 12_l._ per ton, would be 27_l._; deducting 7_l._ for rent, labour, and other expenses, this would leave a profit of 20_l._ per acre.
The roots are cut into small pieces of about half-inch or three-quarter inch lengths 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 wasting the chicory from 75 to 80 per cent. It is then marketable, and is usually sold to the drysalters and grocers, who roast and grind it as they do coffee. In the ground state it may be kept for years, but it soon cakes. The roasted root is emptied into iron vessels, and, after cooling, is crushed in vertical stone mills, or between iron cylinders.
The dried roots cut are roasted in this country like coffee. The loss during roasting is from 25 to 30 per cent. The roasters generally introduce into the roasting machine about 2 lbs. of lard for every cwt. of chicory. Some say this is to give the chicory a better face, others state that it renders the powder less hygrometric. Inferior kinds of chicory are alleged to be coloured with Venetian red.