"Digging-The madder cultivated in strong, dry soils may be removed in three years, and from wet lands in eighteen months. Thus the madder of the mountain requires three years to mature well, while the paluds may be dug in from one and a half to three years. The roots should not be extracted until the seed has been produced. Some cultivators, who are pressed for the moneyed results of their labors, do not wait for the seed; but the madder thus prematurely gathered is of an inferior quality. "The ramifications of the stalk are first cut, dried, and threshed for the seed; the straw, or refuse, is saved as fodder for cattle. The roots are then dug with the spade or fork, and as their length will average one and a half feet, it can be seen that their removal leaves the land in a prepared state for some other crop. "Drying.-When dug they are spread on the aire, (usually a level spot of ground paved with brick,) where they are dried by the action of the sun and air. When the larger roots may be easily broken, they should be heaped up, so that the smaller tips (pettis couts) may become thoroughly dry. Care must be taken that this place be free from dampness. "Trituration.-When the roots are sufficiently dry they are embaled and sent to the manufacturers, where they are stored in a well-ventilated granary. It is taken from the granary in proportion to each day's demand, and, having caused it to lose 15 to 16 per cent. of water in a drying oven, it is passed under a large mill-stone and ground to powder. The bolters keep the coarser portion for a second grinding." The following are extracts from the statement (recently received) of Messrs. Imer Brothers and Leenhardt, relative to the expenses of cultivation in the district about Marseilles: Expenses per hectare (two and a half acres) by manual labor. "It is found, in taking a piece of ground of great firmness and of a productiveness of 33 quintaux of root per hectare, that the expense will amount to only 26.40 francs per quintal, (110 pounds;) whilst in lands of less tenacity there will be a yield, say, of 55 quintaux, which would reduce the cost of the first crop to 15 francs the quintal." ITS CULTURE IN THIS COUNTRY. The plant is found to be very hardy in this country, is entirely exempt from injury by insects, and not liable to suffer from drought in deep soils after the first season. Twenty years ago it was produced to some extent in some portions of the country, especially in Ohio. Some of the most successful cultivators reported a product of 2,000 pounds per acre. A Mr. Joseph Swift, of Birmingham, Erie county, Ohio, for several years engaged in its production, with profitable results for a time at least. The following is a statement of one of his. crops, as reported originally by Mr. M. B. Bateham: By 2,000 pounds of madder, at 15 cents per pound. Contra.-To 100 days' work, at 75 cents To use of land four years, at $4 per acre. Leaving a profit of $300 00 $75 00 16 00 100 00 200 00 Its cultivators have sometimes met with loss from drought soon after planting. The great length of time required for maturing the crop has been a great drawback to its cultivation, especially if coupled with ill success through drought in starting a plantation. The soil in which the Ohio experiments were made was in most cases river bottom, not wet or liable to overflow. Good strong upland, not clayey enough to bake hard, was thought to be almost as good, and a soil impregnated with lime was found to produce the best quality. The land was ridged up in the autumn, and in the spring received a dressing of barn-yard manure, sometimes with leaf mould or decomposed muck in the case of uplands, previous to ploughing and harrowing. For planting, light, straight furrows were made, eight feet apart, and the roots were laid lengthwise one foot apart and covered to the depth of two inches. Ten bushels of sets were sufficient for one acre. A cultivator was employed between the rows, with hoes along the rows as soon as the plants made their appearance, and such cultivation was continued at such intervals as to keep the surface free from weeds. The more thorough in this respect, the less labor was needed the next season. Vacancies were filled up by lifting and dividing some of the stronger roots, when the plants were well rooted, in May or June. When twelve or fifteen inches high, the tops were bent down on each side and covered with earth, excepting the tip. This operation was continued whenever the new shoots had attained the same height as before, until the entire space between the rows was filled, with the exception of a space of two feet in the middle, which was kept clean and mellow by a single plough. This process of layering filled the whole space with roots, and left no necessity for culture the second year, with the exception of weeding and ploughing the middles. But the tops were bent down and covered to fill closely the remaining space, until it became difficult to get dirt in the ditches with which to cover. Care was exercised to keep the edges of the bed as high as the centre, to prevent the too rapid drainage of water and the danger from drought. Washing and drying. The roots were washed in some running stream. If none was near, they were washed in large sieves, the wire as fine as that of wheat sieves, half a bushel at a time, the roots being carefully pulled apart while washing. Two hands could thus wash 125 to 150 bushels per day. They were then spread on platforms made of tight boards, making a layer of roots four inches in depth upon each, and dried in the sun, the platforms being set up so as to incline towards the south. Five or six days of dry weather, with protection from dews at night, was found sufficient to cure it. Subsequently it was kiln-dried and ground. Kiln-drying. The following plan was recommended and adopted in these Ohio experiments, by which the drying was accomplished in ten or twelve hours: "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 girths 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 crosspieces 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 five inches apart. On these scaffolds the madder is to be spread eight or 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 inches 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; (but he should be cautioned not to remain long inside, as the gas from charcoal fires is liable to cause suffocation.)" Breaking and grinding.-The roots, which are brittle when dry, were broken by threshing with flails, or passing through a bark mill or other crusher. They were ground immediately after kiln-drying; otherwise they would gather dampness. After crushing, the grinding was done in a common grist-mill. It was then packed in vessels, like flour, and was ready for market. So far as I have been able to ascertain, the culture of madder is not carried on to any extent in this country at the present time. We have a suitable climate and productive soils. The greatest obstacle to success with it seems to be the high price of agricultural labor and the scarcity of casual or irregular labor, which renders it difficult to obtain help at the precise season when required. Another reason is found in the proverbial disinclination of our people to agricultural or any other species of productive industry which requires three years to secure returns. It seems to be a remunerative crop, if it can be produced under favorable circumstances. By the selection of a proper soil and a very favorable climate, (perhaps in the southern States or in California, where its constant growth might produce an excessive yield with labor of German women or children, or Chinamen,) with system and labor-saving appliances in cultivating and preparing it, a profitable result might be secured. It is very proper and highly desirable that a fair and persistent trial should be made to overcome the difficulties which have interfered with the enterprise thus far. If there are those who would make another effort at the present time, let them choose a southern or southwestern aspect, and select a deep, rich, sandy, and calcareous loam, free from all weeds. Let it be ploughed early in the autumn, and again turned up into ridges before the winter frosts set in, so that the soil may be finely pulverized in spring, when the beds are prepared and the sets planted. The ground should be dry before planting. As a preparation for planting, the soil should be thoroughly and deeply pulverized, and well-rotted manure well incorporated with it. The sets, taken from plantations two or three years old, should have roots four or five inches long. The roots should be dipped in a thin paste of fine rich earth and water, and set with a dibble, leaving the crown above the surface and the earth properly compacted about the roots. During the summer months clean culture is required. with hoe or cultivator, or, while the plants are young, with a light plough; and in the autumn, after the tops decay, the plants should be earthed up for the winter, as a protection against frost. The following extract from a note received from Mr. M. B. Bateham, of Columbus, Ohio, fomerly edirtor of the Ohio Cultivator, corroborates the views herein expressed: "I believe the business has been entirely discontinued in Ohio, and I have no knowledge of its being practiced in any other State. The reasons for this are not from any lack of adaptedness of soil or climate, but simply because the business requires much labor, which must be done by hand, and can only be carried on to advantage near large towns, where Germans or other cheap laborers can be readily obtained at special times when wanted. This was the cause of the abandonment of the business by Mr. Swift and others who have tried it in Ohio. My own experiment, near Columbus, was on soil found unsuited to the purpose. It was too rich and clayey, (alluvial river bottom.) Good sandy alluvium is found well adapted to this crop. For the past few years the price of labor has been too high to encourage any one to engage in madder growing." CHINA GRASS. BY J. R. DODGE, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. The China grass of the East is attaining importance in the commercial and manufacturing circles of Europe. Specimens of the plant in the garden of the department, and of its fibre in the museum, have attracted much attention, and require a brief mention in this report. It is a member of the nettle tribe, the Bahmeria nivea, formerly known as Urtica nivea. It is called "tchou-ma" in China. A variety in Sumatra, the Bæhmeria tenacissima, (of Roxburgh,) is known as rami, kalmoi, or calloee hemp. The rhea, of Assam, is the same plant. It is understood that these two varieties (B. nivea and B. tenacissima) are distinct, though their fibre is very similar, and for all practical purposes identical. Other nettles produce a good fibre. The Bohmeria puya, of India, yields a fibre having a commercial value nearly equal to the B. nivea. Urtica heterophylla, or the Nilgiri nettle, which abounds among the Nilgiri hills and other parts of India, produces what is known as "vegetable wool," which commands £80, or $400, per ton in England. A specimen of very strong fibre, from a variety of nettle found in Minnesota, has been received at the department, but the accompanying fragments of the plant were in a condition too imperfect to identify its botanical classification. It was sent by S. W. Pond, of Shakopee, Minnesota, who represented it as a comparatively abundant wild product of that vicinity. It is a plant very susceptible of cultivation and propagation, in various modes, increasing readily by seed and suckers. Its growth is rapid and luxuriant, vieing in vigor with the rankest tropical weeds. It thrives in a moist climate, but is not very particular as to soils. P. L. Simmonds, editor of the Technologist, says of it: "So rapid is the growth of this plant, that, by careful observation, the colonial botanist of Jamaica found one of its shoots attain the height of six and a half feet in fourteen days, and ultimately eight and a half feet; but in good land it would exceed this by two feet, while in China and the East Indies, where it is highly cultivated, eight feet is the height mentioned it now makes, from which fibre six feet long is obtained." Bahmeria tenacissima was brought into Calcutta from Bencoolen, in 1803, by Dr. Roxburgh, and cultivated in the botanic garden, under his direction, for several years. Its cultivation was so extended that, in 1814, specimens of its fibre, sent to England, were experimented upon, with so favorable a result, as to strength and other valuable qualities, that the Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures awarded a silver medal to Captain Joseph Cotton, of the East India Company, for its introduction. A practical difficulty arose to prevent its immediate use for textile purposes. The processes employed in the preparation of flax and hemp and other common fibres were found entirely inapplicable to the reduction of nettle fibre. Of course the primitive and wasteful mode practiced by the natives-scraping by hand-was not to be considered. The practice of the Todawars, who previously boil the stems in water, or of the Malays, who steep the stems in water for ten or twelve days, was suf ficiently effective for the requirements of Asiatic manufacture, but useless in the manufactories of civilized nations. Maceration was tried, but it was ascertained |