No. 149.] 393 



ready and anxious purchaser ; nor need the husbandman fear he 

 can over stock the market. The use of the root is to dye purples 

 and red, and as a principal ingredient in numerous other colors ; 

 such as madder-orange, madder-yellow, and madder-brown. 

 Some of those who have raised madder, propose keeping it three 

 years in the ground ; but they surely had not fairly and exactly 

 tried the difference. It must be allowed, that the roots will give 

 a little the third year, but not comparable to the very great loss 

 and consequent disadvantage of a whole year's time; neither are 

 they so good as the second year 1 The second autumn is the sea- 

 son when this root has arrived at its perfection, and is, I believe, 

 the most profitable time on all accounts tor taking it up. 



There are different ways of managing madder roots when taken 

 up, such as stripping off the outer bark, then the second bark, 

 and so selling it in three forms, to wit : the rind, the flesh, and 

 the fibre. I would advise the farmer to dry it, and sell it entire 1 



The Secretary read from Ure's Dictionary of Arts, &c., vol. 2, 

 page 792, the following : 



"In a memoir published by the Society of Mulhausen, in Sept. 

 1835, some interesting experiments upon the growth of madders 

 in factitious soils, are related by Messrs. Ksechlin, Persoz and 

 Schlumberger. 



A patch of ground was prepared containing from 50 to 80 per 

 cent, of chalky matter, and nearly one-fifth of its bulk of good 

 horse-dung. Slips of Alsace and of Avignon madders were plant- 

 ed in March, 1834, and a part of the roots were reaped in No- 

 vember following. These roots, although of only six months' 

 growth, produced tolerably fast dyes, nor was any difference 

 observable between the Alsace and the Avignon species; while 

 similar slips or cuttings planted in a natural non-calcareous soil, 

 along side of the others, yielded roots wliicli gave fugitive dyes. 

 Others weie planted in the soil of Palud, transported from 

 Avignon, which contains more than ninety per cent, of carbonate 

 of lime, and they produced roots that gave still faster dyes than 

 the preceding. Three years are requisite to give tlie full calca- 

 reous impregnation to the indigenous madders of Avignon." 



