On the cultivation of the Woad Plant. 59 



plants are not injured by the frosts of winter, they would 

 in this way be fit to cut in June. 



From this experiment I am satisfied the following 

 quantity of indigo could be made from an acre of ground. 

 — One cutting from one sixtieth of an acre gave of woad 

 half a pound, One cutting from an acre, therefore, 

 would have given thirty pounds : four cuttings would 

 give one hundred and twenty pounds. The present 

 price of indigo is two dollars per pound ; therefore one 

 acre of land cultivated with pastel, would produce to 

 the farmer two hundred and forty dollars, 



I wish you to distribute some of the books I have sent 

 among the different Agricultural Societies in the state 

 of Pennsylvania, and the remainder in such manner as 

 will best tend to diffuse a knowledge of the advantages 

 which the agriculturists and dyers of your state may de- 

 rive, from the cultivation and use of pastel. 



If the present pacific state of the world is adverse to 

 the extension of the cultivation and use of pastel, as a 

 dying material, it is nevertheless important, that the ad- 

 vantages which the different sections of our country may 

 reap, at some future day from this plant, should be known 

 when less favourable circumstances shall combine, to 

 afford the colouring ingredients now so easily obtained 

 from every part of the globe. 



During the war, indigo was four dollars a pound in 

 New England and Philadelphia. 



It is of the first consequence to a nation, that it can at 

 all times be able to rely on the resources of its soil, and 

 industrv, for not onlv the necessaries but the luxury cf 

 life. 



P 



