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withered by lying out of the ground, their roots. 
Ihould be fet upright in water for a few hours, which 
Will ftiffen and recover them again. 
In the planting of Madder, there are fome who make 
the rows but one foot afunder, others one foot and a 
half, fome two feet, and others who allow them three 
feet diftance ; I have made trial of the three laft dis- 
tances, and have found when the roots have been left 
three years in the ground, that three feet diftance row 
from row is the belt •, but if it is taken up in two 
years, two feet afunder may do very well and the 
diftance in the rows, plant from plant, fhould be one 
foot, or a foot and a half. 
If there is no danger of the ground being too wet in 
winter, the plants may be planted on the level ground ; 
but if on the contrary, the ground Ihould be railed in 
ridges where each row of plants is to be fet, that their 
roots may not reach the water in winter, for if they do, 
it will flop their downright growth -, and this is the 
reafon why the Dutch, who plant Madder in the 
Low Countries, raife their ridges fo high as two or 
three feet-, and in Zealand, where the ground is drier, 
they raife the beds four or five inches above the inter- 
vals, that the wet may drain off from the beds where 
the Madder is planted. 
The method of planting is as follows: viz. the ground 
being made fmooth, a line is drawn acrofs it to mark 
out the rows, that they may be ftrait, for the more 
convenient cleaning, and for the better digging or 
ploughing of the ground betwen the rows ; then with 
an iron-lhod dibble, holes are made, at the diftance 
which the plants are to Hand from each other. The 
depth of the holes muft be in proportion to the length 
of the roots of the plants, which muft be planted the 
fame depth they had been while they were upon the 
mother plants for if any part of the root is left above 
ground, the fun and winds will dry them, which 
will retard the growth of the plants ; and fhould any 
part of the green be buried in the ground, it will not 
be fo well ; though of the two, the latter will be lefs 
prejudicial, efpecially if there is not too much of 
the green buried. When the plants are put into the 
holes, the earth fhould be preffed clofe to them to 
fecure them from being drawn out of the ground, for 
crows and rooks frequently draw the new plants out 
of the ground before they get new roots, where 
there is not this care taken : fo that in two or three 
days, I have known half the plants on a large piece of 
land deftroyed by thefe birds. 
If there happens to be fome fhowers of rain fall in 
a day or two after the plants are planted, it will be 
of great fervice to them, for they will prefently put 
out new roots, and become ftrong ; fo that if dry 
weather .fhould afterward happen, they will not be 
in fo much danger of fuffering thereby, as thofe which 
are later planted. There are fome who, from a co- 
vetous temper of making moft ufe of the ground, 
plant a row of Dwarf Peas or Kidney Beans between 
each row of Madder, and pretend that thereby the 
land is kept cleaner from weeds but I am very cer- 
tain the crop of Madder is injured thereby much more 
than the value of thofe things which grow between 
the rows, as I have experienced ; therefore I advife 
thofe perfons who plant Madder, never to fow or 
plant any thing between the rows, but to keep the 
Madder quite clean from weeds, or any other kind of 
vegetable. 
In order to keep the ground thus clean, it fhould be 
fcuffied over with a Dutch hoe, as foon as the 
young weeds appear. When a man can perform a 
o-reat deal of this work in a day, and if it is done in 
dry weather, the weeds will die as fail as they are cut 
down ; whereas, v/hen the weeds are left to grow in 
the fpririg, fo as to get ftrength, they are not fo foon 
deftroyed, and the expence of hoeing the ground then 
will be more than double -, befides, there will be dan- 
ger of cutting down fome of the weaker plants with 
die weeds, if the perfons employed to perform this 
work are not very careful-, therefore it is much 
cheaper, as alfo better for the Madder, to begin this l 
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work early in the fpring, and to repeat it as often as 
the weeds render it neceffary ; for by keeping the 
ground thus conftantly clean, the Madder will thrive 
the better. 
During the firft fumrner, the only culture which 
the Madder requires, is that of keeping it dean in 
the manner before directed ; and v/hen the floats or 
haulm of the plants decay in autumn, it fhould be 
raked off the ground qthen the intervals between the 
rows fhould be either dug with a fpade or ploughed 
with a hoeing plough, laying up the earth over the 
heads of the plants in a roundifh ridge, which will be 
of great fervice to the roots. The Dutch cover the 
haulm of their Madder with earth, leaving it to rot 
upon the ground ; this perhaps may be neceffary in 
their country, tt> keep the froft out of the ground ; but 
as I have never found that the fevered: winters in 
England have injured the Madder roots, there is not 
the fame neceffity for that praftice here. 
The following fpring, before the Madder begins to 
flioot, the ground fhould be hoed and raked over 
fmooth, that the young fhoots may have no obftruc- 
tion ; and if there fhould be any young weeds ap- 
pearing on the ground, it fhould be firft fcuffied over 
to deftroy the weeds, and then raked over fmooth j 
after this, the fame care muft be taken in the follow- 
ing fummer to keep the ground clean ; and if it is 
performed by the hoe plough, the earth of the in- 
tervals fhould be thrown up againft the fide of the 
ridges, which will earth up the roots, and greatly in- 
creafe their ftrength ; but before the ground of one 
interval is fo hoed, the haulm of the plants fhould be 
turned over to the next adjoining interval ; and if they 
are permitted fo to lie for a fortnight or three weeks, 
and then turned back again on thofe intervals which 
were hoed, obferving firft to fcuffie the ground to 
deftroy any young weeds which may have appeared, 
fince the ftirring of the ground -, then the alternate 
intervals fhould be ploughed in like manner, turning 
the earth up againft the oppofite fides of the roots ; 
by this method the intervals will be alternately 
ploughed, and the plants earthed up, whereby the 
ground will be kept clean, and ftirred, which will 
greatly promote the growth of the roots and by 
this method the fuperficial fhoots will be fubdued, 
and the principal roots greatly ftrengthened. The 
following autumn the ground fhould be cleared of 
the haulm and weeds, and the earth raffed in ridges 
over the roots, as in the foregoing year. 
The third fpring the roots will furnifh a great fupply 
of young plants -, but before thefe appear, the ground 
fhould be cleaned and raked fmooth, that the fhoots 
may have no obftrudtion to their coming up -, and 
when the young plants are fit to take off, it fhould 
be performed with care, always taking off thofe which 
are produced at the greateft diftance from the crown 
of the other plants, becaufe thofe are what rob them 
moft of their nourifhment, and the wounds made by 
feparating them from the old roots are not near fo 
hurtful as thofe near the crown ; for the ftripping off 
too many of the fhoots there, will retard the growth 
of the plants. 
The culture of the Madder in the third fummer muft 
be the fame as the fecond ; but as the roots will then 
be much ftronger, the earth fhould be laid up a 
little higher to them at the times when the ground is 
cleaned ; and if all the diftant fuperficial fnoots, which 
come up in the intervals are hoed or ploughed off, it 
will be of fervice to ftrengthen the larger downright 
root ; and as the haulm will now be very ftrong and 
thick, the frequent turning it over from one interval 
to another will prevent its rotting ; for if it lies long 
in the fame pofitiqn, the fhoots which are near the 
ground, where there will be always more or lefs damp, 
and being covered with the upper fhoots, the air will 
be excluded from them, which will caufe them to rot, 
for the fhoots of Madder are naturally difpofed to 
climb up any neighbouring fupport -, and in places 
where they have been fupported, I have feen them 
more than ten feet high , but the expence of flaking 
6 / the 
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