212 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



pounds* the ton, and for that of an inferior quality six or 

 seven, and sometimes much more. 



To prepare it for the dyer, it is bruised by machinery to 

 express the watery part ; it is afterwards formed into balls 

 and fermented, re-ground, and fermented in vats, where it is 

 evaporated into cakes in the manner of indigo. The haulm 

 is burned for manure or spread over the straw-yard, to be fer- 

 mented along wilh straw-dung. To save seed, leave some of 

 the plants undenuded of their leaves the second year, and 

 when it is ripe, in July or August, treat itliketurnep-seed. 

 The only diseases to which the woad is liable are the mildew 

 and rust. When young it is often attacked by the fty, and 

 the ground obliged to be resown, and this more than once 

 oven on winter-plowed grasslands." 



WELD OR DYERS'S WEED . (Reseda luteola.) 



Weld is much used by the manufacturers of various fabrics 

 as a dye. It has not to our knowledge been cultivated in 

 this country. We again quote from Loudon : <; Weld is an 

 imperfect biennial, with small fusiform roots, and a leafy 

 stem from one to three feet in height. It is a native of Brit- 

 ain, flowers in June and July, and ripens its seeds in August 

 and September. Its culture may be considered the same as 

 that of woad, only being a smaller plant it is not thinned out 

 to so great a distance. It has this advantage for the farmer 

 over all other coloring plants, that it only requires to be taken 

 up and dried, when it is fit for the dyer. It is, however, an 

 exhausting crop. 



Weld will grow on any soil, but fertile loams produce the 

 best crops. The soil being brought to a fine tilth, the seed is 

 sown in April or the beginning of May, generally broad-cast. 

 The quantity of seed is from two quarts to a gallon per acre, 

 and it should either be fresh, or, if two or three years old, 

 P(| a few days in water previously to being sown. Being 

 a biennial, and no advantage obtained from it the first year, 

 it is sometimes sown with grain crops in the manner of clo- 

 ver, which, when the soil is in a very rich state, may answer, 

 provided that hooing, weeding and stirring take place as soon 

 a- the grain crop is cut. The best crops, however, will ob 

 viously be the result of drilling and cultivating the crop alone. 

 The drills may be a foot asunder, and the plants thinned to 

 ;ix inches in the row. In the broad-cast mode, it is usual to 



* Hie pound sterling may be reckoned at about #5. 



