CHAPTER IX. 



CULTIVATION OF DYER'S MADDER. 



THE quantity of madder consumed annually in the 

 United States, and imported from abroad, is perfectly as- 

 tonishing to those who have given no attention to the sub- 

 ject. Unfortunately, our public records do not give very 

 exact information on the subject ; but Mr. Ellsworth, as 

 the nearest approximation he could obtain, gives the 

 amount as jive thousand tons ! Estimating this at the low 

 average price of ten cents per pound, it makes the round 

 sum of one million of dollars paid annually to foreign 

 countries for an article that can be produced as good and 

 as cheap at home, were the information necessary to its 

 production generally diffused among farmers and others 

 interested in the subject. 



The cultivation of madder has heretofore been repre- 

 sented as a tedious and laborious operation, requiring 

 much care and skill, as well as outlay of capital. The 

 directions have been mainly gathered from foreign works, 

 detailing the methods practiced by the plodding Dutch in 

 Holland and Germany. These accounts have appeared 

 so frightful to Americans, that none of them have dared 

 to undertake the business ; and Yankee enterprise and 

 labor-saving ingenuity have never been exercised upon it. 



It is true, the crop requires three or four years to arrive 

 at maturity, and needs considerable labor, and some 

 knowledge ; but the quantity of land it occupies, and the 

 amount of labor it requires, is far less in proportion to 

 the value of the crop than those of any other farm-crop 

 that can be named. 



