become an inhabitant.

The art of dyeing, generally considered, is kept so great a secret, that
few persons have had the opportunity of making experiments. The
extracting colours from their primitive basis is a chemical operation,
and cannot be expected in this place; but as some persons may be
inclined to ascertain these properties of vegetables, I shall go just so
far into the subject as to give an idea of the modes generally used; and
to state the principles on which the colouring property is fixed when
applied to the purposes of dyeing cloth.

In the article Madder, page 32, I mentioned having made an extract
similar to the Adrianople red. For which purpose, a sufficient quanitity
of the roots should be taken fresh out of the ground, washed clean from
the dirt, bruised in a mortar, and then boiled in rain-water till the
whole becomes tinged of a red colour, then put into a cloth and all the
colouring matter pressed out. This should again be put into hot water in
a clean glazed earthen-pan, to which should be added a small quantity of
water in which alum had been dissolved, and the whole stirred up
together; then immediately add a lump of soda or pot-ash, stirring the
whole up, when an effervescence will take place, the allum that had
united with the juice of the madder will be found to become neutralized
by the pot-ash, and the result will be a precipitate of the red fecula.
This may be washed over in different waters, and either put by for use
in a liquid state, or filtered and dried in powder or cakes. Most
vegetable colours will not, however, admit of being extracted by water,
and it is necessary to use an acid for that purpose: vinegar is the most
common. But in making the extract from roots with acids, great care
should be taken that they are sufficiently cleared from mould, sand,
&c.; for, if the same should contain either iron, or any metallic
substance, its union with the acid will cause a blackness, and of course
spoil the tint. In a similar mode are all the different colouring
principles extracted, either from leaves, flowers, fruits, or woods. The
preparation of woad is a curious process on similar principles; which
see in page 31.

Weld, or dyers weed, is generally used after it is dried. The whole
plant is ground in a mill, and the extract made by boiling it. It is
then managed with alum and acids agreeably to the foregoing rules, which
are necessary for throwing out the colour.

Instructions ho