482 DYES AND COLORING STUFFS. 



must be well seasoned, and all cracks or holes should be plastered or otherwise 

 stopped up. Make a shed-roof of common boards. In the inside put upright 

 standards about five feet apart, with cross-pieces to support the scaffolding. 

 The first cross-pieces to be four feet from the floor ; the next two feet higher, 

 and so on to the top. On these cross-pieces lay small poles, about six feet long 

 and two inches thick, four or five inches apart. On these scaffolds the madder 

 is to be spread nine inches thick. A floor is laid at the bottom to keep all dry 

 and clean. When the kiln is filled, take six or eight small kettles or hand- 

 furnaces, and place them four or five feet apart on the floor (first securing it 

 from fire with bricks or stones), and make fires in them with charcoal, being 

 careful not to make any of the fires so large as to scorch the madder over them. 

 A person must be in constant attendance to watch and replenish the fires. The 

 heat will ascend through the whole, and in ten or twelve hours it will all be 

 sufficiently dried, which is known by its becoming brittle like pipe stems. 



Breaking and grinding. Immediately after being dried, the madder must be 

 taken to the barn and threshed with flails, or broken by machinery (a mill 

 might easily be constructed for this purpose), so that it will feed in a common 

 grist-mill. If it is not broken and ground immediately, it will gather dampness 

 so as to prevent its grinding freely. Any common grist-mill can grind madder 

 properly. When ground finely it is fit for use, and may be packed in barrels 

 like flour for market. 



Amount and value of product, fyc. Mr. Swift measured off a part of hia 

 ground, and carefully weighed the product when dried, which he found to be 

 over two thousand pounds per acre, notwithstanding the seasons were mostly dry 

 and unfavorable. With his present knowledge of the business, he is confident 

 that he can obtain at least three thousand pounds per acre, which is said to be 

 more than is often obtained in Germany. The whole amount of labor he esti- 

 mates at from eighty to one hundred days' work per acre. The value of the 

 crop, at the usual wholesale price (about fifteen cents per pound), from three to 

 four hundred dollars. In foreign countries it is customary to make several 

 qualities of the madder, which is done by sorting the roots ; but as only one 

 quality is required for the western market, Mr. Swift makes but one, and that 

 is found superior to most of the imported, and finds a ready sale. 



Madder is produced in Middle Egypt to some extent, for the 

 consumption of the country, principally for dyeing the tarbouclie 

 or skull caps which are universally worn. Its culture was intro- 

 duced in 1825. In 1833, 300 acres in Upper Egypt, and 500 

 in the Delta and the Kelyout, were devoted to madder roots. 



New South "Wales is eminently suited to the culture of this 

 valuable root, and as the profits upon its cultivation are 

 very large, I would strongly recommend it to the attention of 

 agriculturists there. The article produces to France an annual 

 sum of one million sterling ; the price of the finest quality in the 

 English market being 60 per ton. Its yield varies from 40 

 to 50 per acre, and the expenses upon its proper culture 

 should not exceed one-half that amount. The colonists would find 

 it to their interest to turn their attention to such articles as this, 

 for which there is an extensive demand at home, instead of con- 

 fining themselves exclusively to the commoner and bulkier pro- 

 ducts, which they export at a much less profit, and which when 

 once the market is fully supplied, may fall to a price at which they 

 cannot afford to sell. 



The following is a calculation of the expenses generally supposed 

 to attend a crop according to the mode of cultivation practised in 

 Vaucluse ; 



