PAPERS ON AGRICULTURE.

ON THE CULTIVATION AND MANUFACTURE OF WOAD. IN A LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE BATH AND WEST OF ENGLAND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. BY MR. JOHN PARRISH.

(Continued from. p. 63.)

HAVING said all I conceive necessary on the cultivation of woad, I now proceed to say something on its preparation for the use of the dyer.

Woad, when gathered, is carried to the mill, and ground. I need not describe this mill, because they are to be seen in open sheds in several parts of England, only that I conceive some improvement might be made in their construction, so as not so much to press out and waste the sap, which contains the very essence of the dyeing principle. These mills grind or cut the leaves small, and then they are cast into heaps, where they ferment, and gain an adhesive consistence ;* they are then formed into balls, as compact as possible, and placed on hurdles lying horizontally in a shed one over the other, with room for air between, to receive from the atmospheric, air a principle which is said to improve them as a dye, as well as to dry them to a degree proper for being fermented; but in summer these balls are apt to crack in drying, and become fly-blown, when thousands of a peculiar maggot generate, and eat, or destroy all that is useful to the dyer. Therefore they require attention as soon as any are observed to crack, to look them all over well, close them again, so as to render them as compact and solid as possible; and if the maggot or worm has already generated, some fine flour, lime strewed over it will destroy them, and be of much service in the fermentation. These balls, if properly preserved, will be very heavy; but if

* In a dry place, if these leaves remain a fortnight, being occasionally turn. ed, they will become more adhesive, and have less juice to squeeze out in balling. The balls must be compact.

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worm-eaten, they will be very light, and of little value. They are then to be replaced on the hurdles, and turned, not being suffered to touch each other, until a month or more after the whole that is intended for one fermenting couch is gathered in, ground, and balled, and often until the hot weather of summer is past, to render the offensive operation of turning it less disagreeable, and not so apt to overheat; and though temperature herein is necessary, yet a certain degree of heat must be attained, before it is in proper condition for the dyer's use. This is easily distinguished by a change of smell-from that which is most putrid and offensive, to one which is more agreeable and sweet, (if I may be allowed the term,) for few people at first either can approve of the smell of woad, or of a woad vat; though, when in condition, they become quite agreeable to those whose business it is to attend them. Woad is in this state of fermentation more or less time, according to the season and the degree of heat it is suffered to attain, whether at an early period, or according to the opinion of those who attend the process; but the best woad is produced from a heat temperately brought forward in the couch until at maturity, and turned, (on every occasion necessary,) which a proper degree of attention will soon discover.

These balls, when dry, are very hard and compact, and require to be broken to pieces with a mallet, and put into a heap, and watered to a due degree, only sufficient to promote fermentation, but not by too much moisture, which would retard it; and here is a crisis necessary to be attended to. When the couch has attained its due point, it is opened, spread, and turned, until regularly cooled, and then it is considered in condition for sale but the immediate use of woad new from the couch is not advised by dyers who are experienced; for new woad is not so regular in its fermentation in the blue vat. This is the common process. Woad oftentimes is spoiled herein, by people who know nothing of the principles of its dye, following only their accustomed process of preparing it; and hence the difference in its quality is as often seen, as it is in the real richness or poverty of the leaves, from the quality of the land. The process for preparing woad

which I have followed, and which I consider beyond all comparison best, is as follows:

Gather the leaves, put them to dry, and turn them, so as not to let them heat, and so be reduced to a paste; which, in fine weather, children can do. In wet weather, my method was to carry them to my stove, and when I had got a quantity sufficiently dry, I proceeded to the couch, and there put them in a large heap; where, if not too dry, they would soon begin to ferment and heat. If too wet, they would rot, but not properly ferment, nor readily become in condition for the dyer. These leaves not having been 'ground, nor placed in balls on the hurdles, their fermenting quality was more active, and required more attention; and also the application of lime occasionally to regulate the process with the same kind of judgment as used in the blue dying woad vat. When the heat increases too rapidly, turning is indispensably necessary, and the application of very fine flour lime regularly strewed over every laying of them; or, if the couch is getting too dry, limewater instead of common water, applied by a gardener's wateringpot, may have an equal effect,* without loading the woad with the gross matter of the lime; though I conceive that the gross dry flour lime, and the oxygen in the air, will furnish more carbonic acid gas to the woad, and retain such principles as are essential, to a better effect. For I have experienced, that woad which requires the most lime to preserve a temperate degree of fermentation, and takes most time, is best, so that at length it comes to that heat which is indispensable to the production of good woad....

In this couch it is always particularly necessary to secure the surface as soon as the leaves begin to be reduced to a paste, by rendering it as smooth as possible, and free from cracks: this prevents the escape of much carbonic acid gas, (which is furnished by the lime and the fermentation,) and also preserves it from the fly, maggots, and worms, which often are seen in those parts

* There is in lime-water so little of its salt, that its effect is proportionably small, and water will take up but a certain quantity...

where the heat is not so great, or the lime in sufficient quantity to destroy them; it is surprising to observe what a degree of heat they will bear. This attention to rendering the surface of the couch even and compact is equally necessary in either process, and to turning the woad exactly as a dung-heap, digging perpendicularly to the bottom. The couching-house should have an even floor, of stone or brick, and the walls the same; and every part of the couch of woad should be beaten with the shovel, and trodden, to render it as compact as possible.

The grower of woad should erect a long shed in the centre of his land, facing the south, the ground lying on a descent, so as to admit the sun to the back part; and here the woad should be put down as gathered, and spread thin at one end, keeping children to turn it towards the other end. In the course of a week, every day's gathering will be dry for the couch, which should be at the other end; therefore it will be necessary to calculate how long the shed should be; but this can be erected as you gather, and then it will soon be known.

I never used

I never used the thermometer to discover or determine the heat which is necessary to produce that change of smell which finishes a couch of woad properly for the dyer,* but I am convined it cannot be regularly obtained but by temperance and time.

Good woad, such as the richest land produces, if properly prepared, will be of a blackish green, and mouldy; and when small lumps are pulled asunder, the fracture and fibres are brown; and these fibres will draw apart like small threads, and the more stringy they are, and the darker the external appearance and on the green hue, the better the woad; but poor land produces it of a light-brownish green. The fibres only serve to show that it has not suffered by putrefaction.

Considerable fortunes have been acquired by the culture of woad in the North of England, and those who have not in possession land sufficient of proper staple, will give an extra rent for leave to break pasturage; and such as is old, and its sod worn

* I suppose from 100 to 120 degrees.

out and full of ant-hills from long feeding, is equally good, when lime is applied to destroy these and other insects, which here exist more than in such as is in full proof to bear grass; for here they generate and become destructive, so as often to render it very necessary to plough such land, corn it, and form a new turf; and though this is so often prohibited, yet it is often consistent with the best principles of husbandry. Here woad is every thing, and corn after it to a certain degree, which experience will determine, according to the kind of land. Those who grow woad in large quantities, have moveable huts for their work-people; and also all their apparatus so easily put together, as to be of little expense except in carriage.

A friend of mine in London took a large quantity of land whereon had been wood just grubbed up. He planted woad on it, and engaged a person from the North to manage it; and the produce was so abundant as to afford immense profit. I believe he only woaded two years, and then let it. His tenant's produce did not by any means equal his, because the land began to want change. I know not how he succeeds in corn, but I presume he did well, as it is a fine preparative for it.

FIORIN GRASS.

AS mentioned in Archives, vol. 2. p. 268, this grass has been found native. Mr. John Clifford of Philadelphia county, who has the imported grass growing with great luxuriance, found the native grass in abundance in a lane in his vicinity. The Editor also found it in July last, at Saratoga Springs in New-York; and the Hon. Mr. Peters, Pres. Phila. Agric. Soc., lately showed the plant to him in a small brook running through his farm. Mr. Peters has also the imported grass growing from some stolones planted in June last; and to prove its extreme hardiness and strong vegetative power, it may be mentioned that the plants had been wet with salt water on the voyage. They had not the least appearance of life when put into the ground. Fiorin may therefore be considered as secured to the United States.