490 



RUB 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



RUB 



In the isle of Schowen it is forbidden to dig up any Madder 

 before the first day of September ; but on that day, early in 

 the morning, a beginning is made, and the person who carries 

 the first cart-load to the stove has a premium of three ducats 

 for his reward. When the Madder is dug out of the ground, 

 it is carried to the stove, and there laid in heaps in that which 

 is called the cold-stove, and separated with hurdles made of 

 wicker, and memoranda kept of each parcel, and to what 

 countryman it belongs, that each may be dried in their turns, 

 and prepared or manufactured, for which turn generally lots 

 are cast beforehand. It is then carried about six o'clock in 

 the morning into the tower or steeple, hoisted in baskets by 

 ropes to the rooms, and divided or spread, where it remains 

 till the next day, lying there about twenty or twenty-one hours. 

 Then those roots which have lain in the hottest places are 

 removed to cooler, and those in the cooler parts are removed 

 into hotter places nearer the oven. This is continued for four 

 or five days, according as there has been more or less car- 

 ried there. This tower or steeple, where the Madder is first 

 dried, is heated by fifteen or sixteen flues or pipes of brick- 

 work, which run on each side under the floor, and are covered 

 with low burnt tiles, some of which are loose, so that by 

 taking up these the heat is moderated, and conducted to any 

 part of {he tower, as the person who has the care of drying 

 the Madder pleases. The tower has four or five lofts made 

 of strong laths; they are four or five feet above each other, 

 upon which the Madder is laid ; these are heated by an 

 oven, which is placed in a room where the work-people live. 

 When the Madder is sufficiently dried in the tower, it is 

 threshed on the threshing-floor, which is cleaned for that 

 purpose, and then it is brought to the kiln, and there spread 

 on a hair-cloth for about twenty hours, during which time 

 the kiln is made more or less hot, according as the roots 

 are more or less thick, or the weather more or less cold. 

 The kiln consists of a room, the length of which is equal to 

 the breadth of the stove, and is entirely arched over at the 

 top : the oven by which the kiln is heated, is called the hog; 

 this is built upon a stone wall, which rises a foot or two 

 above ground ; and the small arch, by which the heat passes 

 through every part, has several square little holes in the 

 brick-work, that the heat may come out; over these holes, on 

 the top of the kiln, are laid wooden laths, and upon them a 

 hair-cloth, on which the Madder is laid to dry, before it is 

 carried to a pounding place. From the kiln the Madder is 

 moved to the pounding house, and is there pounded on an 

 oaken block made hollow, with six stampers plated at the bot- 

 tom with iron bands ; these stampers are kept in motion by a 

 mill, rery much resembling a grist-mill, which is turned by 

 three horses : the presence of the pounding master is here 

 always required, to stir the Madder with a shovel, and bring it 

 continually under the stampers. When it is properly pounded, 

 it is sifted and put into casks ; the refuse being repounded 

 till all reduced to powder. When the Madder is thus pre- 

 pared and put into casks, it is, in the Netherlands, examined 

 by sworn assayers, and the cask is stamped if the contents 

 be good. Culture of Madder in England. The land, says 

 Mr. Miller, upon which I found Madder thrive best, is a soft 

 sandy loam ; and if it has been in tillage some years, it will 

 be better than that which is fresh broken up. This should 

 have at least a depth of two feet and a half or three feet of 

 good earth, which must be quite cleared from the roots of 

 Couch or any bad weed ; for as the roots of Madder ought to 

 remain three years in the ground, so where there are any of 

 the weeds which spread and multiply at their roots, they will 

 intermix with the Madder roots, and in three years will have 

 taken such possession of the ground, as will not only greatly 



weaken the Madder, but render it difficult to separate their. 

 roots when taken up. The ground should be ploughed deep 

 before winter, and laid in ridges to mellow ; and if it be not 

 too strong, there will be no necessity for ploughing it again 

 till just before the time of planting the Madder, when the 

 land should be ploughed as deep as the beam of the plough 

 will admit ; and there should be men following the plough in 

 the furrows, digging a full spit below the furrow, and turning 

 it upon the top. By preparing the ground of this depth, the 

 roots of the Madder will strike down, and be of greater 

 length, in which the goodness of the crop chiefly consists. 

 The land being thus prepared and made level, will be fit to 

 receive the plants. The best time for planting is about the 

 middle or end of April, according as the season is more or 

 less forward, which must be determined by the young shoots, 

 which are in the best state for planting when about two 

 inches above the ground. In the taking up of these shoots 

 for planting, the grouud should be opened by a spade, that 

 they may be separated from the mother plants with as much 

 root as possible ; for if the roots be broken off they will not 

 succeed: these plants should be drawn up no faster than 

 they are planted ; for if they lie long above ground, they will 

 shrink, and their tops will wither, and then they often 

 miscarry, especially when brought from a distant place. 

 When they are only a little withered by lying out of the 

 ground, tneir roots should be set upright in water for a few 

 hours, which will stiffen and recover them again. The 

 ground being made smooth for planting, a line is drawn 

 across it to mark out the rows, that they may be straight, for 

 the more convenient cleaning, and for the better digging or 

 ploughing the ground between the rows, then holes are made 

 with an iron shod dibble at proper distances. The depth of 

 these holes must be in proportion to the roots of the plants, 

 which must be planted the same depth they had been while 

 they were upon the mother plants ; for if any part of the 

 root is left above ground, the sun and winds will dry it, and 

 retard the growth of the plant : on the other hand, if any of 

 the green stem be buried, it will be prejudicial, though in a 

 less degree. When the plants are put into the holes, the 

 earth should be pressed close to them, to secure them from 

 being drawn out of the ground, which crows and rooks have 

 strength and sagacity to accomplish, wherever this precaution 

 is not observed. If showers fall a few days after the plants 

 are put in the ground, they will strike out new roots and 

 become strong; so that if dry weather should afterwards 

 happen, they will not be in so much danger of suffering there- 

 by, as those which are later planted. Mr. Miller decidedly 

 condemns the Dutch practice of planting rows of Dwarf 

 Peas, Kidney Beans, &c. between the rows of Madder, as 

 weakening the roots of the latter, which, he asserts, ought 

 to be kept perfectly free, not only from weeds, but from 

 every other vegetable. In order to keep the ground thus 

 clean, it should be scuffled over with a Dutch hoe as soon 

 as the young weeds appear, which is all the care required 

 during the first summer. In autumn, when the shoots or 

 haulm of the plants decay, it should be raked off the ground, 

 and the intervals either dug with a spade, or ploughed with 

 a hoeing plough, laying up the earth over the heads of the 

 plants in a roundish ridge, which will be of great service to 

 the roots. The Dutch cover the haulm of their Madder with 

 earth, leaving it to rot upon the ground; this perhaps may 

 be necessary in this country to keep the frost out of the 

 ground, but has been found injurious to the Madder roots in 

 England. In the following spring, before the Madder begins 

 to shoot, the ground should be hoed and raked over smooth, 

 that the young shoots may have no obstruction : and if there 



