54 



Cultivation of Madder. 



Vol. VIII. 



Cultivation ©f Madder, Mubia 

 Tinctorum* 



A MUCH respected friend at Everettville, Va., in- 

 quires if -'Madder is cultivated in Pennsylvania, and 

 to what extent? How is it prepared when brought to 

 market? Could the article be sold in Philadelphia in 

 its rough state, and what would be its probable price?" 



We are ignorant of attempts to cultivate the article 

 in this State at present: it has never succeeded here 

 to any considerable extent. Some six or eight years 

 ago, there was a good deal said about its cultivation 

 in some of the Western States— in Ohio, Kentucky, 

 and Tennessee particularly; and attempts were made 

 to introduce it: how well those attempts succeeded, 

 we are not advised. 



Dyers' madder is a native of the South of Europe, 

 and is largely cultivated in France, Germany and Hol- 

 land, whence the United States market is principally 

 supplied. It is of course brought here in a prepared 

 state, the root being reduced to a coarse powder. It 

 comes in casks containing several hundred weight, 

 and varies in price, as other articles do, according to 

 the demand, quality, and scarcity: say from ten to 

 twenty, or twenty-five cents per pound. It is said to 

 contain five distinct colouring substances: a red, a 

 purple, an orange, a yellow, and a brown : but accord- 

 ing to M. Decaisne, the yellow colouring matter only 

 is procured from the fresh root; and "it is under the 

 influence of atmospheric air, that this changes to red." 

 The quality, we suppose, would be more accurately as- 

 certained, when reduced, than when in the root. We 

 would refer our friend, and others also, vsho would 

 have information on the subject, to page 280, of the 

 Cabinet, vol. 1, where they will find an intelligent 

 letter. Meanwhile, we give an extract below, from a 

 communication furnished by William Partridge, Esq., 

 to the American Agriculturist. We will recur to th< 

 subject again, in our next number. — Ed. 



The great depression in every kind of 

 agricultural produce, makes it the duty of 

 patriotic citizens, to point out any new ve- 

 getable products wanting in the practical 

 arts. Of these there are some five or six, 

 hitherto imported from foreign countries, 

 that can just as well be grown by our farm- 

 ers as by foreigners. These are madder, 

 indigo, Sicilian sumach, rhus coriaria, 

 Italian sumach, rhiis cotinus, weld resides 

 luliola, and woad. 



I undertook to bring these articles to the 

 attention of our agriculturists some fifteen 

 years since, but the then high price of pro- 

 duce paralized the effort. 



I shall in this article treat of the cultiva- 

 tion of madder. The consumption of it is 

 very large, and would require many thou- 

 sands of acres to supply the home market. 

 I believe the cultivation of madder has been 

 successfully prosecuted on a small scale, in 

 the neighbourhood of Utica, State of New 

 York, for some years past. About the year 

 1816, I bought some dried roots in the mar- 



ket of Cynthiana, Kentucky, that I found of 

 very good quality. I have tested some roots 

 brought from South America, where, I am 

 informed, it grows wild, and it proved supe- 

 rior to any European madder I ever used. 

 Mrs. Madison made a report to the Philoso- 

 phical Society of Philadelphia, many years 

 since, on madder raised under her direction, 

 and the report was accompanied with a sam- 

 ple of cotton dyed an Adrianople red, that 

 has never been exceeded in colour by any 

 European dyer. 



D. Ambourncy informs us, that the roots 

 taken from the ground and washed, will, by 

 using four pounds for one, produce all the 

 effect of the best prepared. This fact is 

 highly important to manufacturers, as it 

 points out to them an easy and cheap way 

 of obtaining the article for tiieir own con- 

 sumption, at less than half the price paid by 

 them for the foreign article. 



These facts will prove incontestably, that 

 our soil and climate are admirably adapted 

 for the cultivation of madder. The only 

 impediment to our success lies in the fact, 

 that it requires from two to three years to 

 realize a crop, and our farmers are ever im- 

 patient for quick returns. I shall commence 

 by describing the mode of culture, and then 

 give the process of drying and grinding for 

 distant markets. 



Preparation for the crop. — It will be ne- 

 cessary to plough the land deeply for madder, 

 before the wmter, into high ridges, in order 

 that it may be e.xposed to the action and in- 

 fluence of the frosts and the atmosphere. 

 Early in the spring, these ridges should be 

 well harrowed down by a heavy long-tined 

 harrow, and then ploughed again in the 

 contrary direction to a good depth ; and 

 after this, when the land is not perfectly 

 clean from weeds, or not rendered sufficient- 

 ly fine and mellow, another ploughing and 

 another harrowing should be given. In the 

 last operation, the ground should always be 

 left in as level and even a state as possible. 

 It is then ready for the reception of the 

 plants. 



Soioing and planting. — The sets or plants 

 may then be obtained either by sowing the 

 seeds upon a bed of earth which is rich, and 

 made perfectly fine by digging and raking 

 in the spring, and then lightly covering it, 

 or from offsets or suckers from the old plants. 

 In the first method, on the plants appearing, 

 they should be made perfectly clean by weed- 

 ing, and be set out at the distance of three 

 inches in the beds by the hoe ; in this way, 

 by keeping the ground quite clean and well 

 stirred about the plants, they will be ready 

 to set out in the second autumn, though it 

 will be mostly better to defer the business 



