'CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF MADDER.—NO, 2 .— THE RHODODENDRON A GOOD THERMOMETER. 77 
We sow to the acre of wheat 1 3-4 bushels ; rye 
about 1 1-4 bushels; oats 2 bushels; barley a lit¬ 
tle more; buckwheat, of which we raise a good 
deal, 2 pecks to the acre. Of the seeds, clover 1 
bushel to 6 acres; timothy, 1 to about 10 acres; 
flaxseed, 1-2 bushel to the acre, when sowed for 
seed; 3-4 of a bushel when sowed for fibre. 
It would be difficult to say what is the average 
yield of crops here; we think 30 bushels for wheat 
a fair yield for our best land, though for an aver¬ 
age of years, 18 or 20 would come nearer the mark. 
Com from 15 to 70 bushels shelled. Rye, of this 
grain we have had but one good crop in 7 or 8 
years. I have had on this place, however, 300 
bushels on 10 acres of land; oats 25 to 40 bushels; 
buckwheat varies from 10 to 40, being a very un¬ 
certain crop; flaxseed from 6 to 12 per acre; and 
of this almost every farmer sows a little. 
I have thus in a general way replied to most of 
your inquiries. To go into the minutiae of your 
questions would require a larger space than this 
sheet. I shall be happy to communicate verbal¬ 
ly any farther information, should you think it 
worth your time to visit this neighborhood. 
Accept my best wishes Tor the success of your 
undertaking, and apology for my tardy reply, wri¬ 
ting being with me something of a task, and believe 
me, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
George W. Taylor. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF 
MADDER.—No. 2. 
Before giving directions for the manufacture of 
madder, as practised in Europe, I will inform our 
farmers of the mode pursued in Kentucky of culti¬ 
vating it. 
They first dig the ground to a good depth, ma¬ 
king the mold very light and mellow; they then 
plant small roots in rows, and when they have 
thrown up stalks of about a foot in length, they 
bend them down, and throw over them a layer of 
mold; these will throw up fresh stalks which un¬ 
dergo the same process. This covering up is con¬ 
tinued until the third year, when the bed is opened 
with a pitchfork, and all the roots large enough 
for use, are washed and dried under a shed. The 
smaller roots are planted in fresh beds. The beds 
must be kept clean from weeds. The stalks when 
laid down become roots. The roots most valuable 
for coloring are from the size of a small goose-quill, 
to that of the little finger. If much larger, the 
coloring matter will be of little value, and if many 
such are ground with the smaller roots, the whole 
mass will be injured. 
I shall now proceed to describe the manufacture 
of madder roots for the market. I transcribe this 
account from A. Ure, on the Arts, fee., published in 
England last year. 
“ The madder, taken from the ground and pick¬ 
ed, must be dried in order to be ground and pre¬ 
served. In warm climates it is dried in the open 
air; but, elsewhere, stoves must be employed. 
“ The stringy filaments and epidermis are to be 
removed, called mull; as also the pith, so as to 
leave nothing but the ligneous fibres. 
“ The preparation of madders is carried on in 
the department of the Rhone, in the following 
manner 
“ The roots are dried in a stove heated by means 
of a furnace, from which the air is allowed to issue 
only at intervals,, at the moment when it is judged 
to be saturated with moisture. The furnace flue 
occupies a great portion of the floor; above are 
three close gratings, on which the roots are distri¬ 
buted in layers of about eight inches. At the end 
of twenty-four hours, those which are on the first 
grated floor directly above the stove are dry, when 
they are taken away and replaced by those of the 
superior floors. This operation is repeated when¬ 
ever the roots over the stove are dry. The dry 
roots are thrashed with a flail, passed through 
fanners similar to those employed for wheat, and 
then shaken upon a very coarse sieve. What 
passes through is farther winnowed and sifted 
through a finer sieve than the first. These opera¬ 
tions are repeated five times, proceeding succes¬ 
sively to sieves still finer and finer, and setting 
aside every time what remains on the sieve. 
What passes through the fifth sieve is rejected as 
sand and dust. After these operations, the whole 
fibrous matters remaining on the sieve are cleaned 
with common fanners, and women separate all the 
foreign matters which had not been removed be¬ 
fore. For dividing the roots, afterward, into dif¬ 
ferent qualities, a brass sieve is made use of, 
whose meshes are from 1-4 to 1-S inches diameter* 
What passes through the finest is rejected; and 
what passes through the coarsest is regarded of 
the best quality. These roots thus separated, are 
carried into a stove, of a construction somewhat 
different from the first. They are spread out in 
layers of about four inches in thickness, on large lat¬ 
tice-work frames, and the drying is known to be com¬ 
plete, when on taking up a handful and squeezing 
it, the roots break easily. On quitting the stove, 
the madder is carried, still hot, into a machine, 
where it is minced small, and a sieve separates 
the portion of the bark reduced to powder. This 
operation is repeated three or four times, and then 
the bolter is had recourse to. What passes through 
the sieve, or the brass meshes of the bolter, is re¬ 
garded as common madder; and what issues at 
the extremity of the bolter is called the flour* 
Lastly, the madder which passes through the 
bolter is ground in a mill with vertical stones, and 
then passed through sieves of different sizes. 
What remains above is always better than what 
goes through.” 
The manufacture of madder roots appears to be 
a very formidable operation, yet when reduced to 
practice, I suspect most of the difficulties so ap¬ 
parent in description, would vanish. 
Wm. Partridge. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
THE RHODODENDRON A GOOD THERMOMETER. 
There are few shrubs in our country that have 
not some use, though discoverable only by the clo¬ 
sest examination, and few persons would. see, on 
first scrutiny, in the Rhododendron Maximum a 
complete thermometer. There have been for the 
