152 MADDER. 



Madder. The root of the madder plait, so commonly employed 

 in dyeing, contains more than one coloring matter ; but the most im 

 portant of these, and that which constitutes the most useful element 

 in the root, is alizarine, which was discovered by M. Robiquet. 



This substance is scarcely soluble in boiling water, but it is soluble 

 in alcohol and still more so in ether, to which it imparts a golden 

 yellow color. Alkaline liquors dissolve it and acquire a violet shade 

 extremely agreeable to the eye. Alizarine is sublimed by the action 

 of heat in the form of brilliant red needles. 



Madder, {rubia tinctorum.) is a native of the south ; but as i*. 

 stands the winter, it is now cultivated almost all over Europe ; the 

 plant is propagated by seeds, but there are certain advantages in 

 using the sprouts which it throws out in the spring, and which read- 

 ily take root. The plant requires a friable soil, sufficiently moist 

 and highly manured to receive it ; the soil must be previously 

 trenched or have had a very deep ploughing. In the east of France 

 the planting takes place in April or May. The sprouts which are 

 to be transplanted must be about 6 inches long. When the plant 

 has struck root, the ground is cleaned, and fifteen or twenty days 

 afterwards it is hoed ; in the course of the summer, several other 

 hoeings are required. In Alsace, madder is planted in rows and in 

 patches, a certain interval between each patch being left, the earth 

 of which, in the month of March of the following year, is thrown 

 over the ground that is planted. 



In the neighborhood of Hagaenau, madder occupies the ground 

 during two years ; the crop is gathered about the middle of Novem- 

 ber. In some districts the plant remains in possession of the soil for 

 five or six years. It is generally allowed that the amount of produce 

 increases with time ; but in those countries, such as Alsace, where 

 the plant is liable to be attacked by frost, it is generally thougnt 

 prudent to gather it at the end of two years ; the harvest is then 

 profitable, and in the course of the third or fourth or any succeeding 

 winter, it might run the risk of such severe frost as w..ild destroy it 

 entirely. In southern countries the growers say that a crop of the 

 fourth year exceeds very considerably one of the third year ; but it 

 might be made a question whether the increase actually compensates 

 for the longer occupation of the soil. And then when the cultivation 

 is too much prolonged, a species of fungus is developed around the 

 root and kills it. The crop of madder is gathered with the hoe, a 

 laborious and costly process ; the roots are then dried in stoves and 

 sent to the mill, so that it is in the state of powder that madder is 

 met with in commerce. 



In Alsace, where madder remains two years in the ground, the 

 mean produce per acre is estimated at about 3300 lbs. of dried roots, 

 which is equal to an annual crop of about 1650 lbs. In the south of 

 France, the mean animal produce amounts to something less thin 

 this, or to about 1560 lbs. ;* but the quantity has been estinated a a 

 considerably lower amount still. 



• Db Gasparin, Agricultural Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 2*3. 



