I APRIL.] MADDER. 



j offered premiums, is equally-distant rows, two feet 

 asunder, the land flat. If, for laying the land dry 

 in winter, ridge-work is preferred, only one row, 

 I of three feet, can be set on each. On four"-feet 

 ridges, two rows at nine inches or one foot may 

 be planted. The planting should be performed 

 with care. Women or children should drop the 

 sets, and men follow to plant them. In this month 

 (there can be no danger of their not growing, espe- 

 cially if the land is in as good tilth as it ought. 

 (Watering will scarcely ever be necessary. 



Let the young farmer, however, remember, that 

 kite culture of these plants, applicable only to the 

 kise of manufactures, and which are also largely im- 

 Iported from abroad, is rarely advisable. I was a 

 jmadder planter once, and lost by every acre I 

 planted. A man may plant in the moment of a 

 [high price, and take up his crop, three years after, 

 [at a low one. All such speculations are too hazard- 

 Ions ; nor was there even a fair open competition 

 [among the purchasers. 



Those who have cultivated madder with the 

 [success boasted by the writers of husbandry, should 

 mot hold these observations in contempt. There 

 [appears to me almost as much use in mentioning 

 trials that were unsuccessful, as in those that are 

 fcter so profitable : for it is certainly of as much 

 fconsequence to tell one man that his soil will not 

 Itfo for madder, as to assure another that his will 

 : |/o. Instead of an acre or two, I might possibly 

 fjiave launched (like many others) into 1O or 15 



o 2 acres. 



