54 
CULTIVATION OF MADDER. 
the home market. I believe the cultivation of 
madder has been successfully prosecuted on a 
small scale, in the neighborhood of Utica, State of 
New York, for some years past. About the year 
1816,1 bought some dried roots in the market of 
Cynthiana, Kentucky, that I found of very good 
quality. I have tested some roots brought from 
South America, where, I am informed, it grows 
wild, and it proved superior to any European mad¬ 
der I ever used. Mrs. Madison made a report to 
the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, many 
years since, on madder raised under her direction, 
and the report was accompanied with a sample of 
cotton dyed an Adrianople red, that has never been 
exceeded in color by any European dyer. 
D. Amboumey informs us that the roots taken 
from the ground and washed, will, by using four 
pounds for one, produce all the effect of the best 
prepared. This fact is highly important to manu¬ 
facturers, as it points out to them an easy and 
cheap way of obtaining the article for their own 
consumption, at less than half the price paid by 
them for the foreign article. 
These facts will prove incontestably, that our 
soil and climate are admirably adapted for the cul¬ 
tivation of madder. The only impediment to our 
success lies in the fact that it requires from two 
to three years to realize a crop, and our farmers 
are ever impatient for quick returns. I shall com¬ 
mence by describing the mode of culture, and then 
give the process of drying and grinding for distant 
markets. 
Preparation for the Crop.— It will be neces¬ 
sary to plow the land deeply for madder, before 
the winter, into high ridges, in order that it may 
be exposed to the action and influence of the frosts 
and the atmosphere. Early in the spring, these 
ridges should be well harrowed down by a heavy 
long-tined harrow, and then plowed again in the 
contrary direction to a good depth; and after this, 
when the land is not perfectly clean from weeds, 
or not rendered sufficiently fine and mellow, an¬ 
other plowing and another harrowing should be 
given. In the last operation, the ground should 
always be left in as level and even a state as pos¬ 
sible. It is then ready for the reception of the 
plants. 
Sowing and Planting. —The sets or plants may 
then be obtained either by sowing the seeds upon 
a bed of earth which is rich, and made perfectly 
fine by digging and raking in the spring, and then 
lightly covering it, or from offsets or suckers from 
the old plants. In the first method, on the plants 
appearing, they should be made perfectly clean by 
weeding, and to be set out at the distance of three 
inches in the beds by the hoe; in this way, by 
keeping the ground quite clean and well stirred 
about the plants, they will be ready to set out in 
the second autumn, though it will be mostly bet¬ 
ter to defer the business till spring. It requires 
about thirty thousand plants for setting an acre of 
land. The most suitable time for taking the sets 
is shown by the plants having attained the height 
of ten or twelve inches from the ground, and the 
suckers having thrown out fibrous roots from their 
bottoms. This may be seen by drawing up a few 
of the plants, and usually about the latter end of 
May or beginning of June. Besides, it is necessary 
that the sets shall have formed root-fibres at the 
bottoms, before they are removed, as where that 
is not the case, they never succeed well. 
The land being prepared as directed, and the 
plants provided, a sufficient number of laborers are 
to be employed, that the work may be performed 
as expeditiously as possible. In taking off the 
sets much care is necessary not to injure them. 
The number of plants that can be set in a short 
time should be taken up at once. They should be 
prepared by having a third part of their tops cut 
off. A sort of thin batter should be made by mix¬ 
ing good vegetable mould and water well together, 
and as madder roots contain a large portion of free 
potash, I would recommend an addition of half a 
pound of potash to the batter used for the shoots, 
for every five pounds of fine mould; and this first 
dissolved in the water before mixing with the 
mould. Into this batter the roots and the sets 
should be well dipped before they are placed in 
the earth, as by this means the necessity of water¬ 
ing the plants afterward is prevented. This work 
is executed by a person before the planting com¬ 
mences. Two others are employed afterward in 
distributing the plants, so as to be convenient for 
putting them into the ground. 
These sets, after the land has been formed into 
beds, five feet in breadth, with two feet between 
each for intervals, are put in by means of a line 
and a dibble, beginning at a distance of six inches 
from the outside, and setting a row of plants at a 
distance of five, six, or more inches from each other; 
then removing the line two feet farther on them, 
and putting in another row, and so on, till the bed 
is finished. In this way each bed contains three 
rows of plants, at two feet distance each. 
After Cultivation. —As some of the plants are- 
liable to die soon after the work has been perform¬ 
ed, it is necessary, in the course of two or three 
weeks, to look over the ground, and put fresh vig-. 
orous plants in the places where the others have 
been destroyed. 
It is of the greatest consequence to the growth, 
that it be kept perfectly clean from weeds, and 
that the mould be occasionally stirred about the 
shoots of the plants. 
The insect about which our correspondent in¬ 
quires below, was formerly quite common and 
very destructive among our conservatories in this 
city and Philadelphia, and we are indebted to Mr. 
George C. Thorburn for the following remedy, 
which has invariably proved effectual here. 
Wash the whole of the bark and branches of the 
orange-trees with a strong decoction of ley and soft 
soap. Apply it with a stiff finger-nail or other con¬ 
venient brush, manageable with the hand; after 
which, syringe the tree freely with clear water 
through a powerful green-house hand syringe. By 
continuing the syringing two or three times a day for 
a week, you will get completely clear of them; and 
by an occasional syringing, they will never again be 
