332 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch.XXIX. 



dental circumstances, by slips taken from the old plants and reared in a 

 nursery. Tb.e major part of the crop ripens about the end of July, when 

 women and children are employed in cuttinor off the mature heads for the 

 purpose of distillation ; and in frosty weather, the men who are usually 

 employed in the common operations of the farm, g;o over the plantation 

 with shears and clip otf the stalks, which are afterwards used as fuel *. 



Besides these, there are in the neiglibourhood of London, several exten- 

 sive plantations of the various species of red and damask roses, the leaves of 

 which are gathered for the chemists ; and wormwood, rhubarb, angelica 

 root, and all the different medicinal plants which can be grown in our 

 climate, which, insignificant as they appear in a view of national agricul- 

 ture, yet annually afford very large returns to the grower f. 



Among ihese rhubarb has indeed of late years acquired the character of 

 a culinary vegetable, and is now extensively grown by market-gardeners, 

 for the use of ihe table ; the green stems forming an early and very 

 agreeable substitute for tlie apple. The " giant" species grows to such an 

 enormous size, that young offsets, or buds, set in the ground, about the 

 first week in March, have in the next year produced plants, "measuring 

 above a yard and a half over the surface, with foot-stalks an inch and a half 

 broad by two or three feet long ; and during the two following seasons, the 

 root-stalks have increased to such a size, that it required a barrow to remove 

 the mighty mass that was raised with great labour from the soilt." It is a 

 perennial which lasts a great number of years, and should be planted firmly 

 in land of an open condition, during temperate weather, at the distance of 

 four or five feet, or even more, from plant to plant ; on tlie approach of winter 

 a coating of rotten stable dung, or compost two or three inches deep should 

 be laid around each plant, to the extent of two feet, and in the open weather 

 of February, the whole bed should be forked over. 



Chapter XXIX. 

 ON MADDER— WOAD— AND WELD. 



These plants are grown upon a large scale, for their use as dye-stuffs in 

 the North of Europe, and were formerly extensively cultivated in some 

 districts of this country and Ireland ; but the introduction of other sub- 

 stances, together with frequent disputes about tithe, though afterwards re- 

 medied by acts of the legislature fixing a modus, so far impeded their cul- 

 ture, that, notwithstanding various premiums offered for the encourage- 

 ment of tlieir growth, it has rather fallen off than been extended. 



MADDER 



is a plant, the roots of which produce an imperfect red dye, being deep on 

 the outside, and pale in the middle, and is much used in our manufactures: 

 the haulm, though sometimes employed in the feeding of cattle, is yet not 

 generally used for that purpose, for it tinges the milk, the urine, and even 

 the bones of the animals fed upon it. The root is composed of long 

 slender fibres, which push themselves to the depth of two or three feet into 



* Survey of Berkshire, p. 232. 



•j- Survey of Surrey, by Stevenson, chap. vi. sect. 26 ; by Malcolm, vol. iii. p. 110. 



1 Towers ou the Cultivation of Rhubarb.— tjuar. Jour, of Agric, No. XXXI J. 



