Page:The Annual Register 1758.djvu/367

 MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 3S3

green be buried in the ground it will not be (o well, tho', of the two, the latter will be lefs preju- dicial, efpecially if there bs not too much of ihe green buried. When the plants are put. into the holes, the earth fhould be prefled clofe to them to fecure them from being drawn out of the ground, for crows and rooks frequently draw the young plants out of the ground, before thty get new roots, whftre there is not this care taken : fo that in two or three days, I have known half the plants, on a large piece of lan^:, deftroyed by tirefe birds.

If there happens to be fome Ihowers of rain fall in a day or two after the plants are planted, it will be of great fervice to them, for they .will prefently put ouc new roots, and become ftrong, fo that, if dry weather fliould after- \^ards happen, they will not be in fo much danger of fuffering thereby, as thofe that are later planted. There are fome who, from a covetous temper of making mod ufe of the ground, plane a rovv' of dwarf peas, or kidney- beans, between er.ch rovv of madder, and pretend that hereby the land is kept cleaner from weeds ; but I am very certain the crop of madder is injured thereby much more than the value of ihofe things which grow between the rows, as I have experienced; therefore I advife thofe perlons wl^o plant madder, never to fow or plant any thing between the rows, but to keep the madder quite clean froru weeds, or any other kind of vege- table.

In order to keep the ground thus clean, it fhould be IcufHed over with a Dutch hoe, as looa as the young weeds appear in the

A a fpring,

may do very well ; and the dillance in the rows, plant from plant, fhould be one foot, if to uar.d two year-, or a foot and a half, if to fland three.

If there is no danger of the grounS being too wet in winter, the plants may be planted on the level ground ; but if, on the con- trary, the ground fhould be raifed in ridges where each row of plan:s is to be fet, that their roots may rot reach the water in winter, for if they do it will flop their downright grow-th; and this is the reafon why the Dutch who plant madder in the low Countries, be- tween Helioetfluys and the Brill, raife their ridges fo high as two or three feet, but in Zealand, whe-'-e the ground is drier, they do not raile the beds more than four or five inches above the in- tervals, that the wet may drain oft from the beds where the madder is planted.

The method of planting the madder on level ground is as follows, viz. The ground being made fmooch, a line is drawn cro(s it to mark out the rows, that they may be ftraight for the more con- venient cleaning, and foj the better digging or ploughing the ground between the rows; then with an iron-fnod dibble, holes are made at the diltance which the plants are to ftand from each other. The depth of the holes muii be in proportion to the length of the roots of the plants, which muft be planted the fame depth in the ground which they had been while they were upon the mother plants, for if any part of the root is left above ground, the fun and wind will dry it, which will retard the growth of the plants ; and, fhould any part of the

Vol. I.