The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom by P. L. Simmonds

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_The second year._--Keep the beds free from weeds; plough the alleys
and cover the tops, as before directed, two or three times during
the season. The alleys will now form deep and narrow ditches, and if
it becomes difficult to obtain good earth for covering the tops,
that operation may be omitted after the second time this season.
Care should be taken, when covering the tops, to keep the edges of
the beds as high as the middle; otherwise the water from heavy
showers will run off, and the crop suffer from drought.

_The third year._--Very little labor or attention is required. They
will now cover the whole ground. If any weeds are seen, they must be
pulled out; otherwise their roots will cause trouble when harvesting
the madder. The crop is sometimes dug the third year; and if the
soil and cultivation have been good, and the seasons warm and
favorable, the madder will be of a good quality; but generally it is
much better in quality, and more in quantity, when left until the
fourth year.

_Digging and harvesting._--This should be done between the 20th of
August and the 20th of September. Take a sharp shovel or shovels,
and cut off and remove the tops with half an inch of the surface of
the earth; then take a plough of the largest size, with a sharp
coulter and a double team, and plough a furrow outward, beam-deep,
around the edge of the bed; stir the earth with forks, and carefully
pick out all the roots, removing the earth from the bottom of the
furrow; then plough another furrow beam-deep, as before, and pick
over and remove the earth in the same manner; thus proceeding until
the whole is completed.

_Washing and drying._--As soon as possible after digging, take the
roots to some running stream to be washed. If there is no running
stream convenient, it can be done at a pump. Take large round
sieves, two-and-a-half or three feet in diameter, with the wire
about as fine as wheat sieves; or if these cannot be had, get from a
hardware store sufficient screen wire of the right fineness, and
make frames or boxes, two-and-a-half feet long and the width of the,
wire, on the bottom of which nail the wire. In these sieves or
boxes, put half a bushel of roots at a time, and stir them about in
the water, pulling the branches apart so as to wash them clean;
then, having a platform at hand, lay them onto dry. (To make the
platform, take two or three common boards, so as to be about four
feet in width, and nail deals across the under side). On these
spread the roots about two inches thick for drying in the sun. Carry
the platforms to a convenient place, not far from the house, and
place them side by side, in rows east and west, and with their ends
north and south, leaving room to walk between the rows. Elevate the
south ends of the platforms about eighteen inches, and the north
ends about six inches from the ground, putting poles or sticks to
support them--this will greatly facilitate drying. After the second
or third day's drying, the madder must be protected from the dews at
night, and from rain, by placing the platforms one upon another to a
convenient height, and covering the uppermost one with board. Spread
them out again in the morning, or as soon as danger is over. Five or
six days of ordinarily fine weather will dry the madder
sufficiently, when it may be put away till it is convenient to
kiln-dry and grind it.

_Kiln-drying,_--The size and mode of constructing the kiln may be
varied to suit circumstances. The following is a very cheap plan,
and sufficient to dry one ton of roots at a time. Place four strong
posts in the ground, twelve feet apart one way, and eighteen the
other; the front two fourteen feet high, and the other eighteen; put
girts across the bottom, middle, and top, and nail boards
perpendicularly on the outside as for a common barn. The boards
must be well seasoned, and all cracks or holes should be plastered
or otherwise stopped up. Make a shed-roof of common boards. In the
inside put upright standards about five feet apart, with
cross-pieces to support the scaffolding. The first cross-pieces to
be four feet from the floor; the next two feet higher, and so on to
the top. On these cross-pieces lay small poles, about six feet long
and two inches thick, four or fire inches apart. On these scaffolds
the madder is to be spread nine inches thick. A floor is laid at the
bottom to keep all dry and clean. When the kiln is filled, take six
or eight small kettles or hand-furnaces, and place them four or five
feet apart on the floor (first securing it from fire with bricks or
stones), and make fires in them with charcoal, being careful not to
make any of the fires so large as to scorch the madder over them. A
person must be in constant attendance to watch and replenish the
fires. The heat will ascend through the whole, and in ten or twelve
hours it will all be sufficiently dried, which is known by its
becoming brittle like pipe stems.

_Breaking and grinding._--Immediately after being dried, the madder
must be taken to the barn and threshed with flails, or broken by
machinery (a mill might easily be constructed for this purpose), so
that it will feed in a common grist-mill. If it is not broken and
ground immediately, it will gather dampness so as to prevent its
grinding freely. Any common grist-mill can grind madder properly.
When ground finely it is fit for use, and may be packed in barrels
like flour for market.

_Amount and value of product, &c._--Mr. Swift measured off a part of
his ground, and carefully weighed the product when dried, which he
found to be over two thousand pounds per acre, notwithstanding the
seasons were mostly dry and unfavorable. With his present knowledge
of the business, he is confident that he can obtain at least three
thousand pounds per acre, which is said to be more than is often
obtained in Germany. The whole amount of labor he estimates at from
eighty to one hundred days' work per acre. The value of the crop, at
the usual wholesale price (about fifteen cents per pound), from
three to four hundred dollars. In foreign countries it is customary
to make several qualities of the madder, which is done by sorting
the roots; but as only one quality is required for the western
market, Mr. Swift makes but one, and that is found superior to most
of the imported, and finds a ready sale.

Madder is produced in Middle Egypt to some extent, for the consumption
of the country, principally for dyeing the _tarbouche_ or skull caps
which are universally worn. Its culture was introduced in 1825. In
1833, 300 acres in Upper Egypt, and 500 in the Delta and the Kelyout,
were devoted to madder roots.

New South Wales is eminently suited to the culture of this valuable
root, and as the profits upon its cultivation are very large, I would
strongly recommend it to the attention of agriculturists there. The
article produces to France an annual sum of one million sterling; the
price of the finest quality in the English market being L60 per ton.
Its yield varies from L40 to L50 per acre, and the expenses upon its
proper culture should not exceed one-half that amount. The colonists
would find it to their interest to turn their attention to such
articles as this, for which there is an extensive demand at home,
instead of confining themselves exclusively to the commoner and
bulkier products, which they export at a much less profit, and which
when once the market is fully supplied, may fall to a price at which
they cannot afford to sell.

The following is a calculation of the expenses generally supposed to
attend a crop according to the mode of cultivation practised in
Vaucluse:--

Rent per hectare (21/2 English acres), 3 years, at L s. d.
165 francs 19 17 6
Manure, 440 francs L17 12 6
Carriage of ditto, 132 francs 3 5 10
--------- 22 18 4
---------
L42 15 10

These expenses may almost be dispensed with in our colonies, as the
soil at Vaucluse has long been exhausted.

Two and a-half acres require 170 lbs. seed, at 21/2d. per pound,
which, with the labor afterwards bestowed, including the
cost of spade trenching, will be 30 0 0
---------
L72 15 10

The average produce per hectare is 77 cwt., which, at L1 4s. 2d. per
cwt. (the price on the spot), is L93. The price is now much lower, but
still it is clear a most profitable return would be derived from the
first crop, and a proportionably larger one afterwards.

A considerable portion of the madder roots, instead of being ground
and exported in that form, as heretofore, is now exposed, after being
invested with dilute sulphuric acid, to a boiling heat by means of
steam, by which the coloring matter is considerably altered and
improved in quality for some dyeing processes, while the quantity
rendered soluble in water is greatly increased. The madder so prepared
is known as "garancine," and forms an important branch of manufacture
in the south of France, which was well illustrated at the Great
Exhibition in 1851, by a collection of specimens supplied by the
Chamber of Commerce of Avignon. The spent madder, after being used in
dyeing, is now also converted by Mr. H. Steiner, of Accrington, into a
garancine (termed _garanceuse_ by the French) by steaming it with
sulphuric acid in the same manner as the fresh madder, and thus a
considerable quantity of coloring matter is recovered and made
available which was formerly thrown away in the spent madder. Both
varieties of garancine give a more scarlety red than the unprepared
madder, and also good chocolate and black, without soiling the white
ground, but are not so well fitted, particularly the garancine of
spent madder, for dyeing purples, lilacs, and pinks. The value of the
garancine imported from France in 1848 was L59,554, and of that
imported in 1851 L93,818. This preparation of ground madder is
imported into Liverpool to the extent of from 500 to 600 tons annually
from Marseilles, for the use of calico printers in the manufacturing
districts. The price is L7 to L8 the ton.

This important root is already cultivated to a considerable extent in
Russia but not nearly in sufficient quantity to meet the local demand;
so that large quantities are imported from Holland and elsewhere,
every year.

The quantity of madder, madder-root, and garaneine annually imported
into the United Kingdom is exceedingly large, over 15,000 tons, as is
shown by a reference to the following figures:--

Madder. Madder roots. Garancine. Total.
cwts. cwts. cwts. cwts.
1848 81,261 139,463 5,955 276,679
1849 92,736 161,986 4,969 259,691
1850 100,248 161,613 5,845 267,706
1851 92,925 202,091 9,382 304,398
1852 84,385 179,813 ---- ----

We imported from France, duty free, the following:--

Madder. Official value. Madder-root.
cwts. L cwts. L
1848 54,084 122,851 25,068 70,749
1849 57,108 131,059 23,459 81,274
1850 54,559 123,628 13,693 55,263
1851 65,577 151,502 34,017 167,721

The price in the Liverpool market, in June 1853, for Bombay
madder-roots was L1 18s. to L2 14s. the cwt.

INDIAN MADDER.--_Rubia cordifolia_, or _Munjestha_, a variety with
white flowers, a native of Siberia, is cultivated largely in the East,
particularly about Assam, Nepaul, Bombay, Scinde, Quitta, China, &c.,
for its dye-stuff, and is known as Munjeet. A small quantity is
exported from China and India; about 338 Indian maunds were shipped
from Calcutta in 1840, and 2,328 in 1841. It fetches in the London and
Liverpool markets from 20s. to 25s. and 30s. per cwt., duty free; 405
tons were imported into Liverpool from Bombay and Calcutta, in 1849,
and 525 tons in 1850, but none was imported in 1851 and 1852.

It was remarked by the Jury in 1851, at the Great Exhibition, that
this is a valuable dye-stuff, and hitherto not so well appreciated as
it deserves, for some of the colors dyed with it are quite as
permanent as those dyed with madder, and even more brilliant. Its use
however is gradually increasing, and it is unquestionably well worthy
the attention of dyers.

LOGWOOD.--The logwood of commerce is the red heart wood, or duramen,
of a fine lofty growing tree (_Haematroxylon Campechianum_), growing
in Campeachy and the bay of Honduras, and which is also now common in
the woods of Jamaica and St. Domingo. It is principally imported as a
dye wood, cut into short lengths. We chip, grind, and pack it into
casks and bags, ready for the dyers, hatters, and printers' use, who
esteem it as affording the most durable deep red and black dyes. It is
sometimes used in medicine as an astringent. That grown in Jamaica is
least valued that of Honduras, Tobasco, and St. Domingo, fetches a
somewhat higher price; but that imported from Campeachy direct, is the
most esteemed. The annual imports into Liverpool are about 1,300 tons
from Honduras, 100 from Tobasco, and 1,800 from Campeachy.

It thrives best in a damp tenacious soil, with a small proportion of
sand. It is imported in logs, which are afterwards chipped, and is of
great commercial importance from its valuable dyeing properties. Old
wood is preferred; it is so hard as almost to be indestructible by
the atmosphere. The albumen is of a yellowish color, and is not
imported. The bark and wood are slightly astringent. The imports of
logwood into the United Kingdom, were 23,192 tons in 1848, 23,996 tons
in 1849, and 34,090 tons in 1850, of which 3,484 tons were re-exported
in 1848, and 2,307 tons in 1849. The imports in the past two years of
1852 and 1853, have averaged 20,000 tons, of which about 3,000 tons
were re-exported. It is increasing in use, for in 1837, the quantity
retained for home use was only 14,6771/2 tons. The price varies
according to quality from L4 to L7 per ton.

We received from Honduras 5,401 tons in 1844; and 55,824 tons in 1845.
From Montego Bay, Jamaica, 398 tons were shipped between January and
July 1851.

FUSTIC.--This is the common name of a species of dye wood in extensive
use, which is obtained from _Maclura tinctoria_, or _Broussonitia
tinctoria_, Kunth, a large and handsome evergreen tree, growing in
South America and the West Indies. The wood is extensively used as an
ingredient in the dyeing of yellow, and is largely imported for that
purpose. The quantity entered for home consumption in the United
Kingdom was 1,731 tons in 1847, 1,653 in 1848, and 1,842 tons in 1849.

Ninety-one tons were shipped from Montego Bay, Jamaica, in the first
six months of 1851.

QUERCITRON.---This bark furnishes a yellow dye, of which about 3,500
tons are annually imported in hogsheads of from half a ton to a ton.
296 tons were imported into Liverpool from Philadelphia in 1849, and
514 tons in 1850.

BRAZIL WOOD.--This very ponderous wood is obtained in Brazil from the
_Caesalpina Braziliensis_, which yields a red or crimson dye, when
united with alum or tartar, and is used by silk dyers. It is imported
principally from Pernambuco, 1,200 quintals having been shipped to
London in 1835, but about 500 tons, worth about L4 a ton, were
imported from Costa Rica in 1845.

The tree is large, crooked, and knotty, and the bark is thick, and
equals the third or fourth of its diameter.

The imports may be stated at about 600 tons annually, the average
price being L50 per ton.

Brazil wood is found in the greatest abundance and of the best
quality, in the Province of Pernambuco, but being a government
monopoly it has been cut down in so improvident a manner, that it is
now seldom seen within several leagues of the coast.

Among the Cuba dye woods is Copey _(Clusia rosea_, Linn).

Braziletto, obtained from _C. Crista_, is one of the cheapest and
least esteemed of the red dye woods, imported from Jamaica and other
West India islands to the extent of 150 tons per annum, fetching L6 to
L8 per ton. 2,361 tons of Nicaragua wood were imported in 1848, 2,701
tons in 1849, and 6,130 tons in 1850.

Spain exhibited various vegetable dyes obtained from cultivated and
wild plants furnished by the Agricultural Board of Saragossa.

LICHENS.

The chief lichens employed in the manufacture of orchil and cudbear
are the following:--

Angola weed (_Ramalina furfuracea_).

Mauritius weed (_Rocella fusiformis_), which comes also from
Madagascar, Lima, and Valparaiso, and then bears the distinctive
commercial name of the port of shipment.

Cape weed (_Rocella tinctoria_), from the Cape de Verd Islands.

Canary Moss (_Parmelia perlata_).

Tartareous Moss (_Parmelia tartarea_).

Pustulatus Moss (_Umbilicaria pustulata_).

Velvet Moss (_Gyrophora murina_).

The last three are imported from Sweden.

Of these lichens, the first, which is the richest in coloring matter,
grows as a parasite upon trees; all the remainder upon rocks.

_Rocella corallina_, _Variolaris lactea_ and _dealbata_, have been
also resorted to.

About 130 tons of cudbear are imported annually from Sweden.

These lichens are found on rocks, on the sea coast. The modes, of
treating them for the manufacture of the different dyes is the same in
principle, though varying slightly in detail. They are carefully
cleaned and ground into a pulp with water, an ammoniacal liquor is
from time to time added, and the mass constantly stirred in order to
expose it as much as possible to the air. Peculiar substances existing
in these plants are, during this process, so changed by the combined
action of the atmosphere, water, and ammonia, as to generate the
coloring matter, which, when perfect, is pressed out, and gypsum,
chalk, or other substances, are then added, so as to give it the
desired consistency; these are then prepared for the market under the
forms of cudbear or litmus.

HENNA (_Lawsonia inermis_), is an important dye-stuff, and the
distilled water of the flowers is used as a perfume. The Mahomedan
women in India use the shoots for dyeing their nails red, and the same
practice prevails in Arabia. In these countries the manes and tails of
the horses are stained red in the same manner. The _Genista tomentosa_
yields red petals used in dyeing, and containing much tannic acid.

ORCHILLA WEED.--The fine purple color which the orchilla weed yields,
is in use as an agent for coloring, staining, and dyeing. About 30,000
lbs. is obtained annually in the island of Teneriffe. 460 arrobas (or
115 cwt.) of orchilla were exported from the Canary Isles in 1833. In
1839, 6,494 cwts. paid duty, and 4,175 cwts. in 1840. The average
imports of the three years ending with 1842, was 6,050 cwt. A little
comes in from Barbary and the islands of the Archipelago.

Dr. W.L. Lindley, in a very interesting paper, read before the
Botanical Society of London, in December, 1852, on the dyeing
properties of the lichens, stated--

The subject of the _colorific_ and _coloring_ principles of the
lichen has, within the last few years, attracted a due share of that
attention which, has been increasingly devoted to organic chemistry.
Since 1830, Heeren, Kane, Schunck, Rochleder and Heldt, Knop,
Stenhouse, Laurent and Gerhardt, have published valuable papers on
these principles; but, here again, we have to regret the great
discrepancy in the various results obtained, and there is therefore,
here also, imperatively demanded re-investigation and correction
before _any_ of the results already published can he implicitly
relied upon, and before we can have safe data from which to
generalise. I have no doubt that a great proportion of the obscurity
overhanging this subject depends on the circumstance that many of
the chemists, who have devoted attention to the color-educts and
products of the lichens, were not themselves botanists, and have
therefore probably, in some cases at least, analysed species under
erroneous names, and also because their investigations have
comprehended a much too limited number of species.

Their utility in the arts, and especially in dyeing--including the
collection of a series of the commercial dye lichens, _i.e._, those
used by the manufacturers of London, &c., in the making of orchil,
cudbear, litmus, and other lichen dyes. While investigating the
dyeing properties of the lichens, I made experiments, with a view to
test their colorific power, on as many species as I could obtain in
sufficient quantity, to render it at all useful to operate on--that
number, however, being very limited (between forty and fifty).

Dr. Lindley adds, many parties may be able to aid his
investigations, by furnishing information on their economic uses,
and on their special applications in dyeing and other
arts--(particularly on their employment, as dye agents, by the
natives of Britain and other countries)--with specimens of the
lichens so used, and their common names--specimens of fabrics dyed
therewith--notes of the processes employed for the elimination of
the dyes, &c. Parties resident in, or travelling through our western
Highlands and Islands, the northern Highlands, Ireland, Wales,
Norway, Iceland, and similar countries, are most likely to be able
to afford this description of information--many native lichens being
still used by the peasantry of these countries to dye their homespun
yarn, &c.

He proceeded to treat--1. The vast importance of this humble tribe
of plants in the grand economy of nature, as the pioneers and
founders of _all_ vegetation. 2. Their importance to man and the
lower animals, as furnishing various articles of food. 3. Their
importance in medicine, and especially in its past history, at home
and abroad. 4. Their importance in the useful and fine arts, and
especially in the art of dyeing. 5. Their affinities and analogies
to other cryptogamic families, and to the Phanerogamia. 6. Their
value as an element of the picturesque in nature; and, 7. Their
typical significance.

He then adverted more especially to the subject of his
communication, under the ten following heads:--

I. The colors of the Thallus and apothecia of Lichens--their causes, and
the circumstances which modify and alter them.

II. History of the application of their coloring matters to the art of dyeing.

III. Chemical nature and general properties of these coloring matters.

IV. Tests and processes for estimating qualitatively, and quantitatively the
colorific powers of individual species--with their practical applications.

V. Processes of manufacture of the Lichen-dyes, on the large and small
scale in different countries--with the principles on which they are founded.

VI. Nomenclature of the dye-Lichens, and of the Lichen-dyes.

VII. Botanical and commercial sources of the same.

VIII. Special applications of the Lichen-dyes in the arts.

IX. Commercial value of the dye-Lichens, and their products.

X. Geographical distribution of the dye-Lichens--with the effect of climate;
situation, &c., on their colorific materials.

Of the four first sections of his paper, the following is a very
short summary or synopsis:--

Under the first head, the author spoke of chlorophylle and various
organic and inorganic substances, which enter into the formation of
the colors of the thallus and apothecia of lichens, and of the
modifications of these colors depending on various degrees of--1.
Exposure to air and light. 2. Temperature. 3. Moisture, &c. 4.
Atmospheric vicissitudes. 5. Season of the year. 6. Nature of the
Gonidic reproduction (_i.e._, gemmation). 7. Nature of habitat. 8.
Organic decomposition. 9. Coalescence of parts, monstrosities, &c.

Under the second section, he traced historically the manufacture of
Lichen-dyes, and the native use of Lichens as dye agents, among
different nations, from the times of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and
Pliny, down to the present day, sketching briefly the ancient end
modern history of orchil, cudbear, and litmus, and specifying the
native use of lichen-dyes in different, countries of Europe, Asia,
and America. He alluded more particularly to their application to
the dyeing of yarns, &c., by the Scotch Highlanders, under the name
of "_Crottles_." "The process of the manufacture of the various
crottles, generally consisted in macerating the powdered lichen for
two or three weeks, in stale urine, exposing the mass freely to the
air by repeated stirring, and adding lime, salt, alum, or
argillaceous and other substances, either to heighten the color or
impart consistence. To such an extent did this custom at one time
prevail, that, in several of our northern counties each farm and
cottage had its tank or barrel of putrefying urine, a homely but
perfectly efficient mode of generating the necessary amount of
ammonia. In the county of Aberdeen, in particular, every homestead
had its reservoir of "Graith,"[53] and the "Lit-pig,"[54] which
stood by every fireside, was as familiar an article of furniture in
the cots of the peasantry, as the "cuttie-stool," or the "meal
girnel." So lately as 1841 (and I presume the practice continues to
the present day), Mr. Edmonston stated that, of four or five native
dyes, used by the Shetlanders to color cloth and yarns, two at least
were furnished by lichens, viz., a _brown dye_ from _Parmelia
saxatilis_, under the name of "Scrottyie," and a _red_ one from
_Lecanora tartarea_, under that of "Korkalett." It is very probable,
however, that steam and free trade have gradually dispelled this
good old custom, even in the remoter corners of our island;
machinery-made articles being now readily supplied, at a rate so
extraordinarily cheap, as to render it absolutely expensive (as to
time, if not also as to money) to prepare colors, even by a process
so simple and inexpensive as that just mentioned."