No. 149.] 391 



and planted by a line one foot apart in the row, the line is then 

 to be moved one and a half feet apart, and another row planted 

 opposite the middle of the first row, one foot apart; then move 

 the line four and a half feet and pursue the same mode of plant- 

 ing, when the sets are all planted in and slightly covered with 

 earth, let the planter go over the ground with a garden rake and 

 make the whole j^iece level. 



If there should be no showers within three days after the sets 

 are planted, they must be watered once, after this nature will 

 take care of them. 



When the weeds are two inches high, they must be hoed out, 

 and the ground broken as deep as possible without coming in 

 contact with the madder plants or roots. After this hoeing, the 

 plants are to be left three weeks, when, if necessary, the horse 

 hoe may be used in the four feet openings without any danger of 

 coming in contact with roots. The main downright roots are all 

 that are of value in madder plants. The horizontal or spreading 

 roots that extend themselves near the surface, are to be consider- 

 ed in two distinct lights, as they are either larger or smaller, for 

 at one of these periods they impoverish the main roots, and at 

 the other they feed and nourish them ; so that you will readily 

 perceive that at one time they are to be nursed, and at another 

 destroyed. 



It is while they are young that they are of advantage to the 

 main root. 



When it is found necessary to send the horse hoe a second 

 time, direct the laborer to cut much nearer one row alternately, 

 in order to break off all the large horizontal roots growing on 

 that side ; small rootlets will grow on the ends thus broken, and 

 will be of service to the main root again. The hand hoes must 

 hoe and clear off' the weeds from the side left by the horse hoe ; 

 towards the end of summer the horse hoe must again be called 

 into requisition to cut the horizontal roots on the side left before, 

 which operation will complete the work for the first season. 



The seed and flower of madder are of no use in the plantation 

 for commercial purposes, and as the seed would only iiupoverish 



