DYER’S BROOM. 
59 
loads, about the month of July ; and the season of “ wood- 
waxen” was a little harvest to them : but it interfered 
greatly with our haymaking. Women could gain each 
about two shillings a day, clear of all expenses, by 
gathering it ; but they complained that it was a very 
hard and laborious occupation, the plant being drawn 
up by the roots, which are strongly interwoven in the 
soil. The dyer gave them eight-pence for a hundred 
weight ; but I fear the amount was greatly enhanced 
by the dishonest practice of watering the load, for the 
specious purpose of keeping it green ; and the old wood- 
waxers tell me, that, without the increase of weight 
which the water gave the article, they should have had 
but little reward for their labor. Greediness here, how- 
ever, as in most other cases, ruined the trade, the plant 
becoming so injured and stinted by repeated pullings, 
as to be in these parts no longer an object worth seeking 
for ; and our farmers rather discountenance the custom, 
as the “ green-weed ” preserves and shelters at its roots 
a considerable quantity of coarse herbage, which in the 
winter and spring months is of great importance to the 
young cattle browsing in the pastures. The use of this 
dyer’s broom is to prepare woollen cloths for the recep- 
tion of another color. It communicates to the article a 
dull yellow, which will then, by being dipped in another 
liquor or composition, according to the shade required, 
receive a green hue. Vegetable filaments, cotton, flax, 
&c., are very differently formed from those threads 
afforded by animals, as silk and wool, and are differently 
disposed to receive colors. The dye that will give a 
fine color to the one, is perhaps rejected by the other; 
and this plant is rarely or never used by the dyer for 
cotton articles. That certain natural productions re- 
ceive and retain, and others reject or soon part with 
artificial colorings, are in some cases in consequence of 
the nature of the substance, and in others by reason of 
||the conformation of the fibre; but any examination of 
this kind would only occasion a tedious discussion and 
remain very obscure at last. We find certain effects 
produced and reason upon them, but so small are the 
parts operated upon, minute the agents, and equivocal 
