Book VI. WO AD. 



855 



5359. The produce from the root of this plant is different according to the difference 

 of the soil, but mostly from ten to fifteen or twenty hundred weight where they are suit- 

 able to its cultivation. 



5360. Li judging of the (juality of madder-roots, the best is that which, on being 

 broken in two, has a brightish red or purplish appearance, without any yellow cast being 

 exhibited. 



536'1. The use of madder-roots is chiefly in dyeing and calico-printing. The haulm which 

 accumulates on the surface of the field, in the course of three years, may be carted to the 

 farm-yard, and fermented along with horse- dung. It has the singular property of dyeing 

 the horns of the animals who eat it of a red color. 



5362. Madder-seed in abundance may be collected from the plants in the September 

 of the second and third years ; but it is never so propagated. 



5363. Madder is sometimes blighted; but in general it has few diseases. 



SuBSECT. 5. Woad. Isatis tinctoria, L. Tetrad. Siliq. L. and Ci-ucfereee, J. Pastel^ Fr.; 

 Waid, Ger. ; Gualda, Span. ; and Guade, Ital. (fig. 592.) 



5364. The common woad is a biennial plant with a fusiform fibrous root, and smooth 

 branchy stem rising from three to five feet in height. It is a native, or naturalised in 

 England, flowers from May to July, and its seeds are ripe 

 from July to September. It has been cultivated in France 

 for an unknown length of time, and was introduced to 

 England in 1582, and grown with success. It is now 

 chiefly cultivated in Lincolnshire, where it is a common 

 practice to take rich flat tracts near rivers, at a high price, 

 for the purpose of growing it for two or four years. 

 Those who engage in this sort of culture, form a sort of 

 colony, and move from place to place as they complete 

 their engagements. It is sometimes, however, grown by 

 stationary farmers. The leaves are the parts of the plant 

 used, and it is considered as a severe crop. 



5365. There is a variety of woad called the dalmatian, 

 described by Miller, and also a wild sort, but only the 

 common is cultivated in this country. 



5366. IVie soil for woad should be deep and perfectly 

 fresh, such as those of the rich, mellow, loamy, and deep 

 vegetable kind. Where this culture is carried to a consi- 

 derable degree of perfection, as in Lincolnshire, the deep, 

 rich, putrid, alluvial soils on the flat tracts extending upon the borders of the large rivers, 

 are chiefly employed for tlie growth of this sort of crop ; and it has been shown by re- 

 peated trials that it answers most perfectly when they are broken up for it immediately 

 from a state of sward. 



5367. The preparation of the soil, when woad is to be grown on grass land, may either 

 be effected by deep ploughings, with the aid of the winter's frost ; cross ploughing and 

 harrowing in spring ; by deep ploughing and harrowing in spring ; by paring and 

 burning ; or by trench ploughing, or spade trenching. The first mode appears the worst, 

 as it is next to impossible to reduce old turf in one year, and, even if this is done, 

 the danger from the grub and wire-worm, is a sufficient argument against it. By 

 ploughing deep in February, and soon afterwards sowing, the plants may germinate before 

 the grub is able to rise to the surface ; by trench ploughing, the same purpose will be 

 more effectually obtained ; and, best of all, by spade trenching. But a method which is 

 equally effectual with the first, more expeditious, and which has a superiority over it in 

 more completely destroying grubs, insects, and other vermin, which are apt to feed on 

 the plants in their early growth, is that of paring and burning. Tliis is, however, 

 chiefly practised where the sward is rough and abounds with rushes, sedge, and other 

 plants of the coarse kind, but might be had recourse to on others, with benefit. 



5368. The time of solving may be extended from February to July. Early sowing, 

 however, is to be preferred, as in that case the plants come up stronger and afford more 

 produce the first season. 



5369. The mode of sowing is generally broad-cast, but the plant might be most 

 advantageously grown in rows and cultivated with the horse-hoe. The rows may be 

 nine inches or a foot apart, and the seed deposited two inches in depth. Tlie quantity 

 of seed for the broad-cast method is five or six pounds to the acre ; for the drill mode, 

 two pounds are more than suflScient, the seed being smaller than that of the turnip. 

 New seed, where it can be procured, should always be sown in preference to such as has 

 been kept for some time ; but when of the latter kind, it should be steeped for soma 

 time before it is put into the ground* 



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