C 57 ] 



On the cultivation of the woad plant, by H. S. Dearborn, 

 Esq. 



Read November, 1816. 



Brinley Place, Roksbury, near 

 Boston, October 31st, 1816. 



Sir, 



Understanding you take great interest in the agricultu- 

 ral pursuits of your country, and as President of the 

 Agricultural Society of Philadelphia, I herewith trans- 

 mit a number of copies of a work, which I have trans- 

 lated from the French, on the culture of Woad or Pastel 

 and the use of its blue pigment in dying. 



Desirous of testing the correctness of the experiments 

 which are therein detailed, of the best methods of cultiva- 

 ting pastel, and extracting the indigo from the matured 

 leaves of the plant, I sowed a piece of ground early in 

 May, in drills, three feet apart ; and at the first weeding, 

 thinned the plants, so as to leave them six inches apart. 



On the 15th of August, I cut a part of the leaves, 

 which covered one sixtieth part of an acre, and pursued 

 the process contained in the information upon the art of 

 extracting indigo from the leaves of pastel, published by 

 order of His Excellency Montaliret, Count of the French 

 empire and minister of the interior, contained in the 

 treatises transmitted. 



The experiment succeeded to admiration, and I here- 

 with send you a sample of the article obtained. 



