On the Cultivation and Manufacture of TFoad. 3'35 



lime regularly strewed over every laying of ihem ; or, if the 

 couch is eetling too dry, lime-water instead of common 

 water, applied by a gardener's watering-pot, may have an- 

 equal effect*, without loading the woad with the gross mat- 

 ter of the lime; though I conceive that the gross dry flour 

 lime, and the oxygen in ihe air, will furnish more carbonic 

 acid gas to the woad, and retain such principles as are es- 

 sential, to a belter eflect. For I have experienced, that 

 woad which requires the most lime to preserve a temperate 

 degree of fermentation, and takes most time, is best, so 

 that at length it comes to that heat which is indispensable 

 to the production of good woad. 



In this couch it is always particularly necessary to secure 

 the surface as soon as the leaves begin to be reduced to 3 

 paste, bv rendering it as smooth as possible, and free from 

 cracks : this prevents the escape of much carbonic acid gas, 

 (which is furnished by ihe lime and the fermentation,) and 

 also preserves it from the fly, maggots, and worms, which 

 often are seen in those parts where the heat is not so great, 

 or liie lime in sufBcient quantity to destroy them ; it is sur- 

 prising to observe what a degree of heat they will bear. 

 This attention to rendering the surface of the couch even 

 and compact is equally necessary in either process, and to 

 turning the woad exactly as a dung-heap, digging perpen- 

 dicularly to the bottom. The couching-house should have 

 an even floor, of stone or brick, and the walls the same ; 

 and every part of the couch of woad should be beaten with 

 the shovel, and trodden, to render it as compact as possible. 



The grower of woad siiould erect a long shed in the cen- 

 tre of his land, lacing the south, the ground lying on a de- 

 scent, so as to admit the sun to the back part; and here 

 the woad should be put down as gathered, and spread thiu 

 at one end, keeping children to turn it towards the other 

 end. In the course of a week, every day's gathering will 

 be dry for the couch, which should be at the other end ; 

 therefore it will be necessary to calculate how long the shed 

 should be; but this cm\ be erected as you gather, and then 

 it will soon be known. 



I never used the thermometer to discover or determine tlie 

 heat which is necessary to produce that change of smell 

 which finishes a couch of woad properly for the dycrf, but 

 I am convinced it cannot be reuularly obl:iined but by tem- 

 perance and time. 



* There is in lime-water so little of its salt, that its cfilct is proport! jnably 

 tniall, and water will take up but a certain '^uaniity. 

 ■Jr 1 Buppo»e horn 100 to liiO degrees. 



Good 



