160 MADDER 



tricts laid in beds, about 3 feet wide, -with deep intervals dug out with the spade, and 

 the layers are set, by means of a dibble or narrow trowel, in rows, each bed contain- 

 ing two rows about 16 inches apart, and the layers being at a distance of 4 to 6 

 inches from each other. In other districts, furrows about 3 or 4 inches deep, and 

 1 or 2 feet apart, are made, and in these furrows the suckers are placed at a distance 

 of 1 foot from one another, and the furrows are then filled up with soil by means of a 

 rake. Should the weather be dry, the plants must be watered. A watering with 

 diluted urine after sunset greatly assists their taking root. After 3 or 4 weeks they 

 appear above the ground. When they have grown to the length of a finger they 

 must be well weeded and earthed up with the hoe, and this process must be repeated 

 4 or 6 weeks later, taking care that the roots be well covered with earth, which 

 very much promotes their growth. The stems and leaves should not be cut off, but 

 allowed to die down as winter approaches. Where the winter cold is very great, the 

 roots shoiild in the course of November be covered up with earth to the depth of 2 

 or 3 inches, and an additional covering of litter is also advisable as a protection 

 from the frost. Water must on no account be allowed to stand in the furrows 

 between the rows during the winter. In spring the covering is removed, and the 

 plant then sends up fresh stalks and leaves as in the first year. The same attention 

 must be paid to weeding and earthing-up during the second as the first year. A 

 second winter and a third summer must elapse before the root is sufficiently mature 

 to be taken up. The object of allowing the roots to remain for such a length of 

 time in the ground seems to be to give time for the interior or woody part of the root 

 to increase ; for this part, though it is no richer in colouring matter than the outer or 

 fleshy part of the root, yields a product of finer quality. In France, however, it is 

 usual to gather the crop in 18 months after planting, that is, in the autumn of the 

 second year. 



In Germany the roots are sometimes even taken up at the end of the first year, 

 and it is to the product thus obtained that the special name of Bothe is applied, the 

 term Krapp being restricted to that which has been in the ground the usual length 

 of time. The root is the only part of the plant generally used. The East Indian 

 product called Munjeet seems, however, to consist entirely of the stalks of the madder 

 plant. It is much inferior in quality to ordinary madder, and is comparatively poor 

 in colouring-matter. 



The time usually selected for taking up the roots is October or November. In 

 doing so care must be taken to break and injure them as little as possible. The 

 quantity of fresh roots obtained in France from one arpent of ground (of 48,000 

 square feet) varies from 4.000 to 6,000 Ibs. In England an acre of ground will yield 

 from 10 to 20 cwts.. and in the south of Germany the produce of 1 morgen of land 

 (equal to about 4,075 square yards) amounts to 50 cwts. of dry roots. In warm 

 climates the roots, as soon, as they are taken out of the ground, are simply dried in 

 the sun, and after having been separated from the earth, &c., are broken into pieces, 

 and then brought to market. This kind of madder is called in the East Alizari, and 

 in England Madder-roots. It consists of short twisted pieces, a little thicker than a 

 quill, reddish-brown, and rather rough externally. A transverse section of one of 

 these pieces exhibits in the centre several concentric layers of pale yellowish-red 

 woody fibre, surrounded by a thin reddish-brown layer of cellular tissue, the original 

 volume of which has been much reduced by drying. Madder is also imported in this 

 state from France, Naples, and Bombay. 



In France and Holland the cultivator generally dries his roots, after shaking out 

 the earth as much as possible, partially in stoves. He then takes them to the 

 threshing-floor, and threshes them with the flail, partly for the purpose of separat- 

 ing the small radicles and epidermis of the root, and partly in order to divide the 

 latter into pieces about 7 or 8 centimetres in length. They are then sieved or win- 

 nowed, in order to remove what has been detached by threshing. The particles 

 which are separated in this process are ground by themselves, and constitute an in- 

 ferior kind of madder called Mutt. The remainder is then handed over to the madder 

 manufacturer, who proceeds to dry it completely in stoves heated to about 100 Fahr. 

 by means of furnaces so constructed as to allow an occasional current of fresh air to 

 pass through. It is afterwards taken to a largo sieve with different compartments, 

 moved by machinery. The compartment with the narrowest meshes serves to sepa- 

 rate the portions of epidermis, earthy particles, and other refuse matter which had 

 been left adhering to the roots after the threshing. The compartments with wider 

 meshes are for the purpose of separating the smaller roots from the larger ones, the 

 latter being considered the best. In Franco this operation is called robage. The 

 roots are then subjected to the process of grinding, by means of vertical millstones, 

 and afterwards passed through sieves of different sizes, until they are reduced to a 

 state of fine powder. When the larger and better roots are ground by themselves, 



