and one of eminence in the blue-trade suffered so much by woad of his own growth, that he declared his resolution to decline the trade altogether. When I pointed out to him that it was the woad that occasioned his bad blues, and that I had from the same defect purchased such other woad as would do, and informed him where he could get it,-he succeeded as usual. His own he disposed of to a drysalter, who sold it again somewhere in the country; and it occasioned such a cause of complaint, as I believe rendered the claim of payment to be given up, or partly so: of this I am not certain, having it only from report. I mention this in order to give those who wish to become growers of woad, such information as may properly direct them.

The leaves of woad on good land in a good season grow very large and long, and when they are ripe show near their end a brownish spot inclining to a purple towards its centre, while other parts of the leaves appear green, but just beginning to turn of a more yellowish shade; and then they must be gathered, or they will be injured.

Woad is to be gathered from twice to four and even five times in the season, as I once experienced (it was an early and a late season), and for the next spring I saved an acre for seed, of which I had a fair crop. I picked the young seedling sprouts off the rest, and mixed with my first gathering of what was newly sown; this was very good. During one season I let these shoots grow too long; the consequence was, that the fibrous parts became like so many sticks, and afforded no saponaceous juices. When you design to plant woad on the same land the second season, it should be as soon as your last gathering (before winter is finished) be ploughed; that is, as soon as the weather will permit, and in deep furrows or ridges, to expose and ameliorate it by the vegetative salts that exist in the atmosphere, and by frost and snow. This, in some seasons, has partly the effect of a change of produce; but if intended for wheat, the last gathering should not be later than September.

The land, after woad, is always clean, and the nature of the soil appears to be greatly changed in favour of the wheat crop; for I have always experienced abundant increase of produce after woad, and observed that it held on for some time, if proper changes were attended to, and good husbandry. Keeping land clean from weeds, certainly produces an increase of corn; but in the hoeing and gathering woad (for hoeing and earthing up the plants often renders them abundantly more prolific, even if there are no weeds), many nests of animalculæ are destroyed, as well as grubs

and

and insects, which are destructive to vegetation. All this is favourable to corn; but I am disposed to believe that woad in itself furnishes such a principle of change in favour of corn (and wheat in particular), as in a high degree to merit the attention of that Society who are so honourably united to promote and encourage the first interests of the British empire.

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 wormeaten, 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 or

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

smell

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 the same kind of judgement 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

with

lime regularly strewed over every laying of them; or, if the couch is getting too dry, lime-water instead of common water, applied by a gardener's watering-pot, may have an equal effect*, without loading the woad with the gross mat ter 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 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 wil 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 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 dyert, but I am convinced it cannot be regularly obtained but by temperance and time.

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.

I suppose from 100 to 120 degrees.

Good

Good woad, such as the richest land produces, if pro perly 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 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 workpeople; 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.

LXI. Geological Remarks and Queries on Dr. CAMPbell's Map and Account of the Stratification of Lancashire, in our fast Number, p. 26s. By Mr. JOHN FAREY, Senior, Mineral Surveyor.

To Mr. Tilloch.

SIR, I WAS gratified, as I doubt not great part of your readers would be, at seeing a beginning made in your Philosophical and Geological Magazine, to sketch out the stra

tification