336 BRITISH HUSBANDRY. [Ch. XXIX. 



the clods are raked off into the sides of the furrows, and tlien rolled again to 

 leave it clean and neat. Being thus far done, the field must be gripped 

 very carefully, for wherever water stands, the woad is entirely destroyed. 

 Upon the first coming up of the plant, attention must be paid to the turnip- 

 fly and also to frosts, as the plants are sometimes destroyed by both, and 

 must in that case be sown again immediately*. 



If sown on arable land, the first ploughing should be against winter'; the 

 second in the spring, when the ridges should be formed ; a third in April, 

 and the last in Mayor June, just before the sowing of the seed. The plants, 

 in a moist season, appear in a fortnight, and in two or three weeks after are 

 fit for the hoe ; they should be hoed out clean to the distance of about six 

 inches at the least : some prefer a wider interval. Hand-weeding and thin- 

 ning are generally executed by women and children on their knees, using 

 short spuds with one hand, and drawing away the weeds with the other t. 



The Flemish mode is, in February or March, after the frost has acted on 

 the surface of the earth, the manure is spread over it as equally as possible : 

 two furrows, of about thirteen and a-half inches, are made with the plough, 

 the whole length of the ground intended to be sown, forming between them 

 a ridge, or bed, of twenty-seven inches wide, upon which the seed is sown 

 in two rows ; for if sown in three rows, it has been remarked that the leaves 

 of the middle plants, not having sufficient air, give little or no return. The 

 land should be rendered as fine as a garden ; the seed should be sown pretty 

 thickly, the rake passed over the drills, to render them perfectly smooth, 

 and afterwards rolled. Some put the seed to soak in water, the night pre- 

 ceding the day they intend to sow it; others throw it over snow, which, as 

 it melts, buries the seed ; and others again sow it before a slight rain. 

 The woad springs up more or less quickly at the end of ten or twelve days, 

 but in a montli or six weeks, it acquires strength and vigour, shoots 

 forth five or six leaves, and when they spring up is the time to weed, and 

 mould it up with the loose soil ; operations which should be repeated fre- 

 quently until the approach of harvest^. 



AH these difl'erent modes of proceeding arise from the difference of cli- 

 mate ; for in some parts of the South of France and Germany, it is sown in 

 autumn, and then produces its crop in the following year. The plants 

 should be carefully weeded and kept perfectly clean until their maturity, 

 which usually takes place about the middle of June. The ripeness of the 

 plant is known by the leaves changing their greenish blue into a })ale green, 

 and they ought to be then immediately gathered, or the colouring power of 

 their juice will be materially injured. The operation is performed by hand, 

 taking care not to injure the stem, which ought to produce new leaves; for 

 immediately after the cropping, the field is l)y the same persons reweeded, 

 and a second and third crop is produced within a few weeks; the last 

 is, however, of but little value, and is generally allowed to run to seed. 

 The stalks should then be reaped like wheat, and spread abroad, and if the 

 weather be favourable, the seed will be fit for thrashing in four or five 

 days. 



The green crops are gathered into baskets, and when carted home, are 

 thrown into a mill constructed with a heavy iron ribbed roller, something 

 like that used for bruising furze, by which process it is crushed to a pulp, 

 and is then laid in small heaps to drain, after which it is made up into oval 

 balls, which are dried on hurdles under a shed exposed to the sun, or, more 



* Lincolnshire Rep., '2nd erlit., p. 175. | Somersetshire Rep.,3r(l edit... p. 113. 



X Ra(lcliff"s Atjiiculture of Kast and West Flanders, Ap., No. V. 



