No. 4. 



Cultivation and Manufacture of Madder. 



119 



zens, ever since he sojourned among them. 

 Let us then continue to deserve the good 

 opinion of every friend to improvement, and 

 pledge ourselves to renewed exertion in the 

 noble and ennobling pursuits of agriculture. 

 The primitive occupation of the tillers of 

 the soil, said Mr. Gowen, will ever ensure 

 to them the purest morality, and the most 

 unflinching patriotism. 



Good Advice. — Quit your pillows and go 

 about your business, if you have any — it is 

 the first injunction; if not, seek some. Let 

 the sun's first rays shine upon your head in 

 the morning, and you shall not want a good 

 hat to defend you from its scorching rays at 

 noon. Earn your breakfast before you eat 

 it, and the sheriff will not deprive you of 

 your supper. Pursue your calling with dili- 

 gence, and your creditor shall not interrupt 

 you. Be temperate, and your physician 

 shall look in vain for your name on his day 

 book. If you have a small farm, or a trade 

 that will support your family, add a hundred 

 dollars a year to your capital, be contented. — 

 Exchange paper. 



From the American Agriculturist. 

 Cultivation and Manufacture of Madder. 



Before giving directions for the manu- 

 facture of madder, as practised in Europe, I 

 will inform our farmers of the mode pursued 

 in Kentucky, of cultivating it. 



They first dig the ground to a good depth, 

 making the mould very light and mellow ; 

 they then plant small roots in rows, and 

 when they have thrown up stalks of about 

 a foot in length, they bend them down, and 

 throw over them a layer of mould ; these 

 will throw up fresh stalks which undergo 

 the same process. This covering up is con- 

 tinued until the third year, when the bed is 

 opened with a pitchfork, and all the roots 

 large enough for use, are washed and dried 

 under a shed. The smaller roots are planted 

 in fresh beds. The beds must be kept clean 

 from weeds. The stalks when laid down, 

 become roots. The roots most valuable for 

 colouring, are from the size of a small goose- 

 quill to that of the little finger. If much 

 larger, the colouring matter will be of little 

 value, and if many such are ground with 

 the smaller roots, the whole mass will be 

 injured. 



I shall now proceed to describe the manu- 

 facture of madder roots for the market. I 

 transcribe this account from A. Ure, on the 

 Arts, &c., published in England last year. 



"The madder, taken from the ground and 

 picked, must be dried in order to be ground 

 and preserved. In warm climates it is dried 



in the open air; but elsewhere, stoves must 

 be employed. 



" The stringy filaments and epidermis are 

 to be removed, called mulle; as also the 

 pith, so as to leave nothing but the ligneous 

 fibres. 



" The preparation of madder is carried on 

 in the department of the Rhone, in the fol- 

 lowing manner: — 



" The roots are dried in a stove heated by 

 means of a furnace, from which the air is 

 allowed to issue only at intervals, at the mo- 

 ment when it is judged to be saturated with 

 moisture. The furnace flue occupies a great 

 portion of the floor; above are three close 

 gratings, on which the roots are distributed 

 in layers of about eight inches. At the end 

 of twenty-four hours, those which are on the 

 first grated floor directly above the stove, 

 are dry, when they are taken away an^ re- 

 placed by those ot the superior floors. This 

 operation is repeated whenever the roots 

 over the stove are dry. The dry roots are 

 threshed with a flail, passed through fanners 

 similar to those employed for wheat, and 

 then shaken upon a very coarse sieve. What 

 passes through is further winnowed and sift;ed 

 through a finer sieve than the first. These 

 operations are repeated five times, proceed- 

 ing successively to sieves still finer and 

 finer, and setting aside every time what re- 

 mains on the sieve. What passes through 

 the fifth sieve, is rejected as sand and dust. 

 After these operations, the whole fibrous 

 matters remaining on the sieve are cleaned 

 with common fanners, and women separate 

 all the foreign matters which had not been 

 removed before. For dividing the roots af- 

 terward, into different qualities, a brass 

 sieve is made use of, whose meshes are from 

 one-quarter to one-eighth of an inch diameter. 

 What passes through the finest is rejected; 

 and what passes through the coarsest, is re- 

 garded of the best quality. These roots 

 thus separated, are carried into a stove, of a 

 construction somewhat different from the 

 first. They are spread out in layers of 

 about four inches in thickness, on large lat- 

 tice-work frames, and the drying is known 

 to be complete, when on taking up a handful 

 and squeezing it, the roots break easily. On 

 quitting the stove, the madder is carried, 

 still hot, into a machine, where it is minced 

 small, and a sieve separates the portion of 

 the bark reduced to powder. This opera- 

 tion is repeated three or four times, and 

 then the bolter is had recourse to. What 

 passes through the sieve, or the brass meshes 

 of the bolter, is regarded as common mad- 

 der; and what issues at the extremity of the 

 bolter is called the flour. Lastly, the mad- 

 der which passes through the bolter, is 



