VOL. Xm. NO. 47. 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



-378 



out, wring and air it ; then put it into the copperas 

 water, and turn it as nsual, fifteen minutesj wring 

 and air if, again; then dip it in the lime water 

 five minutes, and let it be well washed. If 

 the color does not become sufficiently dense, re- 

 peat the opei-atious until the desired color be ob- 

 tained. Then dip it in the mixture of .«tarcli, oil 

 and water, as directed for silk. JIuch benefit 

 may also be expected from soaking it a short time, 

 previous to its being oiled, in a mixture of ox 

 gall and water. Wlien the cloth has not been 

 first dyed blue with indigo, more dippings and a 

 stronger decoction of logwood will bo necessary. 

 In some great dyeing establishments the black vat, 

 as directed above, is chiefly used for Coloring black, 

 instead of the cojijieras watei-, and is doubtless 

 preferable, when it can be readily obtained. The 

 cloth should be first steeped in a decoction of niU- 

 galls, or the barks above directed, and afterwards 

 macerated and worked several times in the liquor 

 of the black vat, drying it between each of the 

 macerations, and finally, being well rinsed, it is to 

 be dyed with a quantity of majdebark, gails, &rc., 

 to saturate the iron injbibed in the black vat. To 

 soften the black so produced, the yarn &c. is usually 

 passed through a bath of starch and oil, well njix- 

 ed and stirred, employing for this purpose at the 

 rate of one ounce of oil for each pound of cloth, 

 yarn, &c. This employment of linseed oil gives 

 a soft, glossy appearance to the black dyed upon 

 cotton and linen, renders the color more intense 

 and durable, and is particularly important for sew- 

 ing thread. But care must be taken not to with- 

 draw the cotton from this mixture till by suitable 

 management the oil has been equally applied to all 

 parts of it. 



Having given what we believe some of the best 

 methods of dyeing the four simple colors, and in- 

 cidentally mentioned some of their compounds, 

 we now proceed to give directions for coloring 

 several of those which are most frequently used 

 or which have been, or still are, most highly es- 

 teemed by mankind. Among these are the pur- 

 ple, once the most costly and valued of colors, 

 worn only by princes and the most wealthy of 

 mankind. The ancient color was produced by a 

 liquor found in small quantities in one or more 

 species of shell fishes. It is yielded by a species 

 of the Buccinum, which resembles in form the 

 garden snail. This liquor is found in a little 

 white or yellowish bag, placed transversely in im- 

 mediate contact with the shell, near the head of 

 its inhabitant. It is nearly colorless, but when 

 applied to linen, cotton, &c., and exposed to the 

 rays of the sun, it will become green, blue, 

 and finally a most durable purple. Perhaps 

 this animal may be found upon our coast, 

 and be advantageously used for marking fancy 

 work, &c. Josselyn, in his " New England Va- 

 rieties Discovered," says—" At Pachataway, a 

 plantation about fifty leagues eastward of Boston, 

 in a small cove, called Baker's Cove, they found 

 this kind of muscle, wliich hath a purple vein 

 which being pricked with a needle yieldeth a per- 

 fect purple or scarlet juice, dyeing "lineu so that 

 no washing will wear it out. We'mark om- hand- 

 kerchiefs and shirts with it." But purple, being 

 a compound of red and blue, is more cheaply dyed 

 by the following method. The cloth must first he 

 colored blue, by either of the methods recommend- 

 ed in this essay. The saxon blue (second method) 

 gives the brighest but least durable color. It 

 must then be boiled with alum and tartar, as di- 



rected tor yellow, and aferwards dyed with co- 

 chineal, employing from half to two thirds of the 

 quantity required for scarlet. Or, iustead of using 

 the alum and tartar, the murio sulphate of tin, as 

 directed for yellow and scarlet, may be used as a 

 mordant, and a more brilliant purple thereby ob- 

 tained. Silk, previously dyed blue, by the first 

 method, being macerated in the murio-sulphate of 

 tin, sufficiently diluted, may be made to receive a 

 fine and lasting purple, or violet, according to the 

 shade of blue previously communicated, by dye- 

 ing it with cochineal. Some varieties of purple 

 and violet may be produced by substituting mad- 

 der for cochineal, but, though lasting, they will 

 be less beautiful. Brazil wood, Nicaragua wood, 

 and in fact whatever wit! color red, will give, with 

 indigo blue, purples, often lively and beautiful, but 

 they have but little stability. 



Oh Cotton. — Cotton, macerated in a decoction 

 of galls or maple bark, employing about one pound 

 of galls to six of cotton, then dried and after- 

 wai-ds soaked in a saturated solution of equal parts 

 of alum and copperas, being again dried, rinsed, 

 and dyed with its weight of madder, will obtain a 

 fast color, which, by varying the proportion of 

 alum and copperas, using more alum the lighter 

 you want tlie shade, may he made to incline more 

 or less to purple or violet. 



[To he continued.] 



MIIiK Vl'EED. 



Since our remembrance the milk weed was con- 

 sidered as noxious as the thistle, and its destruc- 

 tion sought with the same avidity, by every good 

 farmer. Our mothers used to gather the contents 

 of the pod for upholstery purposes, but they were 

 thought of little value, and as many supposed, de- 

 leterious to health. Now the milk weed, or 

 silk grass as some call it, is considered one 

 of the most vahudjle of all our indigenous 

 plants'. — It has long been used in Canada for cul- 

 inary purposes, as a substitute for asparagus. It 

 is easily cultivated, by gathering the seeds in the 

 fall and sowing them early in the spring in drills, 

 taking care that the ground be well manured and 

 pulverised, and that they be covered about one 

 inch deep. They vegetate slowly and make their 

 appearance after 4 or 5 weeks. After 2 years 

 they should be taken up and set in a trench aboiU 

 eight inches apart and six inches deep. The fol- 

 lowing spring, when the young shoots are four or 

 five inches from the ground, they may be cut and 

 served up in the manner of asparagus, and by 

 mostejiicureans, will be pronounced to be equally 

 delicious. 



It may also be propagated by cuttings of the 

 root. The plant has long roots with eyes. These 

 may be cut otT in pieces five or six inches long 

 and planted in trenches, care being taken to place 

 them in the trench obliquely with the eyes up, 

 and to cover them about six inches deep. This 

 may be done either in the fall or spring, but 

 if omitted till spring it must be attended to 

 early before the milk has ascended the stalk. 

 Gen. Dearborn of Roxbury, in an article on the 

 milk weed, in a late number of the Blassachu- 

 setts Horticultural Register, from which we have 

 gathered the foregoing methods of propagation, 

 &c. thus speaks of tlie silk, and the uses to 

 which it is applied. — Bait. Farmer. 



"The silk, when taken from the pods, and 

 being freed from the seeds, is hung up iu thin 

 bags in the sun, and when perfectly dry may be 



used without any fm-ther preparation, instead of 

 feathers, horse hair, wool or cotton, for cush- 

 ions, bolsters, pillows, mattresses, and coverlets. 

 From eight to nine pounds is sufficient for a bed, 

 bolster, and two pillows. It is lighter and wrr.n- 

 er, when used in forming coverlets or comforters, 

 than cotton, or wool, and is nearly ecpial to eider- 

 down. 



For spinning, the staple of the silk is too short, 

 when taken alone, and therefore is combined with 

 flax, wool, cotton, or raw silk. 



One third of this silk, with two thirds of cot- 

 ton, forms a very excellent mixture for gloves, 

 stockings, and other articles of like manufacture. 

 One part of this silk and two of rabbit's fur 

 forms hats exceedingly light, soft to the touch 

 glossy, and which have a great resemblance to 

 beaver hats. 



Besides the above named articles manufactured 

 from the silk, I recollect having seen at several 

 of the annual exhibitions of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Society, in Brighton, tippets, capes, 

 bonnets, and various other articles, which were 

 very beautiful. They were formed by sewing the 

 tufts of silk by the part which is attached to the 

 seed, to linen, cotton, or silk cloth in rows, one 

 overlapping the other, like the shingles on a roof, 

 They had the appearance of the n]Ost delicate and 

 rich fur; and so simple was the work thatachild 

 could execute it. 



For embellishing the outer borders of pleasure 

 grounds, the skirts of roads, avenues, clumps of 

 trees, the sides of groves, and to intermingle 

 with shrubfs, all the American varieties may be 

 used with picturesque efti^ct. 



On examining some botanical works, since 

 writing the above, I found that Parkinson had 

 received the Syriaca from this country, and cul- 

 tivated in his botanical garden of rare plants as 

 early as 1629. He called it Virginia silk, and it 

 was stated that the French Canadians were in the 

 habit of eating the tender shoots as substitutes for 

 asparagus. 



It is but little trouble to form in every garden, 

 side by side, beds of dandelions, seakale, milk 

 weed, and asparagus, which from the last of March 

 until the green peas appear, will afford a daily and 

 various supply of delicious vegetables. They are 

 all perennial plants, and when once set out, and 

 properly taken care of in autumn and spring will 

 yield abundant crops, for all time, without removal. 



A New Article. — Several gentlemen of this 

 town have formed an association for the manu- 

 facture of an entirely new kind of carpeting and 

 floor cloth : which they call the Norwalk Felt 

 Carpeting. Its principal recoimnendations are, 

 its durability, which isgreater than that of Brussels ; 

 its price, which is less than Ingrain ; its lustre, 

 which is equql to Turkey ; its surface which great- 

 ly resem'oles Wilton. Its advantages over these are 

 its imperviousncss to dust,to wind am! to water. Its 

 texture is necessarily fine from the manner in which 

 it is made. The colors are bright and durable, pen- 

 etrating the entire thickness, an eighth of an 

 inch. We examiued apiece which had been used 

 about three years, and we did not think we could 

 discover any appearance of wear hi it, either in re- 

 gard to color or texture. From the lustre of the col- 

 ors and the taste displayed in the selection of pat- 

 terns, we think the efiect upon the eye i»the most 

 jileasing and brilliant of that of any carpeting we 

 have ever seen. — A'orwalk Gazette. 



