150 
MR. E. CORDER ON THE CULTURE AND 
An acre of Woacl produces from a ton to a ton and a half of 
prepared material. 
Woad had some slight reputation medicinally, since Salmon, in 
the ‘English Physician’ (1693) says : — “Isatis, Glastum, Goadum, 
or Woad, the Herb, with its stalks and flowers, are dried without 
sharpness. The Decoction, which drunk opens the obstructions of 
the spleen, and helps the hardness thereof, and cures wounds and 
ulcers in strong bodies ; hut is most used by dyers to dye their 
cloth withall. The Saline Mixture, which more powerfully opens 
obstructions of the liver and spleen. The Seed, which some say 
purges ; ” hut as the old herbalist found some medicinal properties 
in most plants, his information does not go for much. 
Before the introduction of indigo into the dyeing houses of the 
Continent, Woad was prepared somewhat differently in France and 
Italy. The ground pulp was taken from the mill and placed on 
sloping floors made of stone, fitted with gutters; as the mass 
fermented large cracks were formed and a black juice exuded, 
which ran away down the gutters ; the cracks were filled up as fast 
as they appeared, and in about a month the mass was sufficiently 
dry to be made up into cakes, called coques or cocaignes, these 
were packed in tubs for the dyer, to whom the second ferment 
was left. Woad prepared in this Avay gave a working percentage 
of blue colour, though nine parts of the leaves yielded only one 
part of paste, and this gave hut two per cent, of pigment. To 
dye with Woad alone was always a very delicate process, and is 
probably never employed at the present time. The Woad was 
placed in a vat and boiling water added, the vat being then left 
for some time ; slaked lime in small proportions was then put 
in, the vat kept at a gentle heat and constantly stirred; after 
a time a blue scum appeared on the surface showing that the 
ferment was going on ; this would dye cloth green, which on 
exposure to the air developed into the deepest blue, thus 
acting identically as indigo. It is rather doubtful if the 
Woad manufactured in Lincolnshire at the present day would 
yield much if any colouring matter. From a description given 
in an old glossary of the thirteenth century it is evident that 
the blue colour was obtained from Woad even at that time, and 
was called Indian. 
In the eighteenth century, indigo being very dear and Woad 
