PREPARATION OF WOAD AT PARSON DROVE. 
149 
in ono district, and since it was indispensable to crush the leaves 
directly they were picked, it was necessary for the mill to be 
close at hand ; having exhausted the finest land, or from some 
other cause, he would migrate, taking only the rollers and paving- 
stones, quickly building a fresh mill of sods, hurdles, and straw, 
wherever he might stop. 
The crushed pulp is taken from the mill and thrown into heaps, 
where any superfluous juice drains away, and in a short time the 
mass is ready to be made into balls. The leaves are usually crushed 
in the morning and balled in the afternoon. These balls are about 
as large as a Dutch cheese, and are placed in sheds on shelves 
made of slips of wood, with a broad space between each slip ; the 
trays or shelves are in ranges some distance apart, and the sheds 
are open on all sides to the weather, being only covered in at the 
top ; thus exposed to the air the balls quickly dry and shrink to 
the size of a small orange. In about a month they are removed 
from the shelves and crushed to powder under the rollers, or 
broken to pieces by hand. Then follows the most difficult part of 
Woad manufacture, namely, the “couching.” The couching-shed, 
which is paved with stone, is built of the same material as the 
mill, turf being preferable, to brick or stone, as it preserves a 
more equal temperature ; this shed or barn is about fifty feet by 
twenty feet and holds many tons of Woad. 
The powder is spread out on the lloor, about two feet deep, and 
constantly turned over, thereby rapidly developing a fermentation, 
which is regulated by sprinkling the mass with cold water. This 
process lasts about two months, and the Woad requires constant 
care and attention during the whole of that period, as over heating 
spoils the quality of the Woad, and too low a temperature checks 
the ferment. A very strong ammoniacal vapour is given off at 
this stage. The shed is kept almost dark, only one very small 
entrance being used. In about eight weeks the fermentation has 
practically ceased, all the heat has disappeared, and the Woad is 
ready for the dyer ; it is rammed tightly into sugar tubs, holding 
from twenty to thirty hundredweight each, which are carefully 
headed up and each cask marked with the quantity contained and 
the year it was produced. Woad improves very much by keeping, 
due to a slight ferment that goes on after it is cashed, and its power 
is said to be quite doubled in four years. 
