106 AGRICULTURE. 



Holland. The province of Zealand is principally 

 occupied with it, and the little island of Schowen 

 alone gives annually one thousand tuns of the root. 



The species generally cultivated are two, the 

 Azara and Izari; names by which they are called 

 in the Levant, whence the seed is generally import- 

 ed to Europe, and preferred to that raised in more 

 northern latitudes. 



The soil most proper for this plant is a rich loam, 

 and the manures fittest for it the sweepings of streets 

 and gutters, and mud of ponds.* It is remarked in 

 England that it succeeds better after a grain than 

 after a grass crop. The preparatory labour should 

 be performed in the fall, leaving a single ploughing 

 only for the spring, which, like those that preceded 

 it, should be as deep as possible. The planting 

 should follow without delay. In the Levant they 

 form beds, alternately, of unequal elevation ; one 

 high, the other low ; on the latter the madder is 

 planted,! and in the autumn of the second year the 

 surface of the higher bed is scattered over that 

 which is lower ; and by a similar process the next 

 year the lower bed is raised six inches higher than 

 the other. By this management the earth retains 

 sufficient humidity for the growing plants. 



In transplanting madder, care must be taken to 

 preserve the buttons which attach themselves to 

 the roots, and that the roots themselves be ten 

 inches apart in the rows, and their crowns not more 

 than two inches below the surface. 



The greatest duration of the plant is six years, 

 but three is the permitted term; as, after that age, 

 the roots lose in colour and soundness what they 



* Young's works. 



t Madder requires more moisture in its first stage than is 

 ordinarily furnished by rains and dews. Thence arose the meth- 

 od of raising the plants in a seed-bed, where they might be 

 watered at will, and afterward transferred to the place where 

 they were intended to grow. 



