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