pV UC Ae Se eae 
756 
man conquerors from the Latin word pictus sig- 
nifying painted, and those in the south were call- 
ed Britons from the Celtic word dritho signifying 
to paint. _Woad was at one time very extensive- 
ly cultivated both in England and in Scotland ; 
but, in consequence of being generally superseded 
for the dyer’s purposes by indigo, one-thirtieth 
part of which yields as much colouring matter, 
it has in almost all districts been driven out of 
cultivation except in a few parts of Lincolnshire. 
But it is indigenous throughout most of Conti- 
nental Europe, and is still cultivated to a con- 
siderable extent in Flanders and in the South of 
France. Its root is tapering, thick, fibrous, and 
branching ; its stems are upright, much branched, 
and about 3 or 4 feet high; its radical leaves have 
pretty long footstalks, and are ovate-lanceolate, 
notched, and about a foot in length; its cauline 
leaves are clasping, almost entire, and about 3 
inches long and 4 an inch broad; its flowers have 
small petals, and are of a bright yellow colour in 
both calyx and corolla, and bloom from May till 
July; and its pods stand on slender pendulous 
footstalks, and are nearly half an inch long and 
two inches wide, and have a chestnut or dark 
brown colour, and a shining surface. An old po- 
pular name of this plant was glastum, from the 
Celtic word glas, signifying blue; and this name 
gave rise to the appellation of the town Glaston- 
bury. 
The best soil for woad is rich mellow loam, 
containing a large proportion of vegetable mould ; 
and it must be deep and in fine condition. The 
rich alluvial pastures of Lincolnshire, when new- 
ly broken up, serve excellently for woad, and at 
the same time are cleared by it from wire-worms 
so as to be rendered eminently fit for subsequent 
crops of grain. Arable land intended for woad, 
be it what it may, must be both light and fertile, 
in a well drained condition, and not retentive of | 
moisture. In autumn, it should be well ploughed 
and ridged up; throughout winter, it should en- 
joy full exposure to the action of frost and wind 
and rain; and in spring, it should be harrowed 
down, ploughed across, reploughed, and reduced 
by subsequent tillage to a state of perfect clean- 
ness, and fine pulverization— or, when practi- 
‘cable, treated in the manner of summer-fallow- 
ing up to the time of sowing. Pasture or ley 
land, intended for woad, must be treated accord- 
ing to its character and condition; and in some 
instances, may need vastly less preparation than 
land which has been under a series of tillage 
crops,—in others, may require to be pared and 
burned.—The seed is sown in the latter end of 
July or beginning of September, and again at in- 
tervals in the spring, from February till May, so 
as to vary the time for stripping the plants of 
their leaves. About six bushels of seed are sown 
on the acre broadcast, but much less in drills. 
As the value of the woad plants depends upon 
the luxuriance of their growth, and the thickness 
of their leaves, much attention is necessary to the 
WOAD. 
after-management of the crop. In the spring- 
sown crops repeated hoeing should be attended 
to, all weeds removed, and the plants thinned out 
as they extend in growth, until they stand 6 or 
7 inches apart, or more, according to the fertility 
of the soil, always leaving sufficient space to pre- 
vent their being crowded. After this nothing 
more is done till the first cropping of the leaves 
has been performed, when the plants are again 
well weeded; and this is repeated immediately 
after each operation, the extent of ground cleared 
in the day being weeded before night. In the 
late mode of sowing, after the second weeding in 
October, nothing further is required until April, 
when the mould should be well stirred about the 
roots, and the ground carefully weeded. This 
will keep the plants clean till the first crop is 
gathered, and then the process of weeding must 
be performed as before directed.—In the spring- 
sown crops, the leaves are generally ready for ga- 
thering from the end of June till the first week in 
July, according to soil and season. The gather- 
ing should be performed as soon as the leaves are 
fully grown, while they retain their perfect green 
colour, and are highly succulent; for if left until 
their colour turns, they are much deteriorated. 
The leaves are gathered into baskets made for 
the purpose; and the crop, if well managed, will 
afford two or three gatherings in the season. 
The portion left for seed is generally cropped of 
its leaves the first year, and left to run up for 
seed the next; but some cultivators remove the 
side leaves only. The plant is sometimes fed 
down by sheep in the winter. 
In the preparation of woad for the dyer, sev- 
eral processes are necessary. It is first conveyed 
in horse-carts so contrived as to be lifted from 
the axle, and by folding-doors in the bottom to 
discharge their contents upon the floor above the 
mill, which is of a peculiar kind, having several 
wheels for grinding the plants with less diame- 
ters on one side than the other, being about three 
feet in width, and constructed with iron bars for 
crushing the woad. The materials are preserved 
under the grinding wheels by proper contri- | 
vances, which, as soon as they are sufficiently re- | 
duced, force it out of the tracks upon the stone | 
floors and the sides, thus making way for new | 
The | 
parcels without the mill being stopped. 
bruised woad is then thrown into rooms by the 
sides of the mill destined for its reception. It 
there remains till the juice isso much drained 
off as to leave it in a proper condition to be form- 
ed into balls; which is done by labourers, with 
apparatus for the purpose, and then laid upon 
trays to be conveyed to the drying-houses. These 
are placed on the sides of galleries for the conve- 
nience of removal. The woad is kept in these 
until dry enough to be laid up in other rooms, 
and the whole of the crop has undergone this 
operation, when it is ready to be manufactured. 
In order to prepare it for the use of dyeing, it is 
necessary for it to take on a proper state of fer- 
