FARMER'S ASSISTANT. 433 



taste. But, as French brandy is somewhat expensive, it may 

 not be amiss here to mention, that a very pleasant spirit, 

 resembling that liquor in taste, may be made of the spirit 

 distiled from cider, by puting into it a suitable proporiion 

 of dried peaches, baked brown, but not burnt. About half 

 a gallon of these, or perhaps less, will impart to a barn I of 

 this distiled spirit a very pleasant taste, smell, and color, 

 after the liquor has had time to ripen by age. Whether 

 this liquor, thus prepared, will precisely supply the place of 

 French brandy, in making artificial wines, is not particularly 

 known. Certain it is, however, that when it has age it has 

 much of the brandy flavor, and is full as pleasant as that 

 liquor. Common whiskey, also, when divested of its essen- 

 tial oil, may in like manner be turned into a pleasant brandy, 

 after it has acquired sufficient age. 



WO AD. The leaves of this plant, when reduced to a 

 paste, by a proper degree of heat and fermentation, and the 

 mass then sufficiently dried, is used by D*ers, together with 

 indigo, for making the best blue dies. Under MILKWEED, 

 it will be seen that the leaves of that plant have been suc- 

 cessfully used as a substitute for woad, and probably may be 

 found less difficult and expensive in cultivation. 



By a communication of Mr. Parish, of Greatbritain, who 

 is himself a Dier, and a Cultivator of woad, it seems, how- 

 ever, that the cultivation of this plant has made fortunes to 

 several in that Country, when grown on suitable lands; and 

 that it is an excelent preparative for a crop of wheat. 



The soil, he says, which suits it best, is a fertile moist 

 loam, and if underlaid with clay the better; that ground 

 of this kind, which has long lain in pasture or meadow, is 

 much preferable to land constantly tilled with grain, as boirg 

 more clear of weeds; that it is vain to expect a good crop 

 of this plant, and ot good quality, on poor shallow land; for 

 that, if the crop on such land should even be abundant, as 

 it may be by manuring; still such lands can never impart to 

 the woad its essential quality to make it valuable for dying; 

 and more especially if the season be wet and cold. Warm 

 showery seasons, neither too dry nor too wet, are the mobt 

 suitable for its growth. 



Mr. Parish says he once had occasion to purchase woad 

 that was grown in a very wet season, and found, on using it 

 in his vats, that it was impossible to regulate their ferment- 

 ation ; that, on experiencing this difficulty, he purchased 

 woad that was grown in a more genial season, and then he 

 succeeded ; that he kept the other three or four years, and 

 then found it more steady in its fermentation; but that it 

 then required double the quantity, and even with this its 

 effects were not so beneficial, as when good woad was used. 



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